Meta has discontinued the functionality of a recently launched AI tool following criticism that Instagram accounts were used to create AI-generated images.
Friday’s move comes less than a week after the parent company of Instagram and Facebook announced Muse Image, the first image generation model available through Meta AI, the company’s artificial intelligence assistant.
“Our goal was to provide useful creative tools and give people control over whether their public content can be viewed in this way,” Mehta said in a statement. “We’re hearing feedback that this feature missed the mark and is no longer available.”
Like other AI apps with image generation capabilities, Muse Image creates images based on user suggestions. However, photos posted to all public Instagram accounts are also automatically created and made available to AI tools as a reference when creating new images.
This prompted a flurry of social media posts expressing privacy concerns and instructing Instagram users how to opt out of having their accounts accessed by Muse Image.
Hollywood also quickly expressed concerns about the image generation feature.
The Screen Actors Guild and American Federation of Television and Radio Artists urged members to change the settings on their Instagram accounts to protect their likeness.
In a statement regarding X, SAG-AFTRA praised Meta’s decision to discontinue this feature.
“The dangers of non-consensual digital replicas are well known, and any feature that facilitates that behavior is unwise,” the union said. “We appreciate the cancellation. It’s the right thing to do.”
