Less than a week after the rollout of Muse Image, its first image-generation AI model, Meta has removed it from Instagram.
This decision has come after widespread backlash, with privacy and AI-generated porn images of celebrities among the key concerns.
For public Instagram accounts, this feature was enabled automatically after the rollout. It did not alert the user if their photos were used to generate AI images.
Techweez wrote its own guide on how to opt out of Muse Image.
Meta has acknowledged that, by design, the feature was not the right fit, stating, “We’ve heard the feedback that this feature missed the mark, so it’s no longer available.”
Criticism on how the feature had been deployed came from various quarters. One particular group was the Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA), a labour union representing about 160,000 media professionals in the United States and around the world.
SAG-AFTRA, which claims to be the largest union in this niche, urged all its members to immediately opt out of the feature.
“We recommend that members (and all Instagram users) opt out of Meta’s new AI image generation tool, Muse Image. Take action to protect your likeness,” the union urged in a statement.
The union is pleased the feature has now been pulled, commenting, “A win is a win.”
A spokesperson for the union added, ” With the dangers of nonconsensual digital replicas well known to all, a feature that encouraged that behaviour is unwise. We appreciate its discontinuance. It is the responsible thing to do.”
AI Misuse on Social Media
While Meta, in its statement, claimed, “Our intent was to provide a useful creative tool,” AI integration into social media has been widely misused.
TikTok has recently been shutting down accounts that used AI-generated Black female influencer personas to funnel users toward paid, sexually explicit content.
Another study from last year revealed that TikTok videos featuring AI-generated imagery of minors in sexualized outfits or poses have collectively amassed millions of likes.
READ: xAI Reins In Grok After Explicit Content Spiral
Grok, the AI feature in Elon Musk-owned X, has also come under scrutiny, with the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) charity report claiming it had discovered “criminal imagery” of girls aged between 11 and 13, which may have been generated using Grok.
In the United Kingdom, X and xAI were previously contacted by Ofcom, following reports that Grok can be used to make “sexualized images of children” and undress women.
This removal by Meta is a win for social media users who want control of their content and clarity on how it’s used.
