Meta removes controversial AI feature on Instagram after backlash

Meta has axed a controversial feature that allowed users to modify photos from public Instagram accounts using AI. The feature, which was rolled out earlier this week along with a batch of other AI tools, “missed the mark” and is no longer available, according to the company.

Earlier this week, Meta announced Muse Image, a new AI image generator built by its dedicated AI unit known as Meta Superintelligence Labs. Meta promoted one feature that allowed individuals to generate images by @-mentioning public Instagram accounts that they wanted to reference. The feature, which wasn’t designed to alert a user if their photos were used in this way, prompted immediate backlash.

TechCrunch wrote its own guide explaining to users how to disable the feature.

Now, Meta has reversed course. The company issued a blog post Friday announcing that it was removing the feature. Puck News founding partner Dylan Byers was the first to share the company’s decision.

“Our intent was to provide a useful creative tool and to give people control over whether their public content could be referenced in this way,” the company posted on its blog. We’ve heard the feedback that this feature missed the mark, so it’s no longer available.

TechCrunch reached out to Meta for more information and will update this article if it responds.

Since its integration with social media platforms, AI has been misused with wild abandon — often to generate naked images of female celebrities. Platforms have attempted to mitigate this trend, although the guardrails introduced have often fallen short.

In the case of Meta’s newly nixed feature, it seems somewhat obvious that it would have been abused in this way. Indeed, Byers notes that the decision to do away with the feature came “amid scrutiny from users and talent agencies, including CAA”.

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