Meta changes his mind: criticism of Muse Image for using Instagram photos in AI disappears

Meta released its new Muse Image tool earlier this week and now it has decided to pull it back. It didn’t do that because it thought it wasn’t a good idea: the whole world told the company that. The fact that actors’ organization SAG AFTRA got involved with a social media post that was widely shared seems to have helped enormously.

MuseImage

Meta came up with Muse Image this week to create images with AI based on a prompt. The special thing was that by tagging someone with their Instagram name, you can also create images based on someone else’s public Instagram posts. This set off some alarm bells for us, but we were clearly not alone. However, Meta doesn’t seem entirely intent on disregarding the privacy of others: it has taken the feature offline. SAG-AFTRA said in its post: “Anything other than a clear and conspicuous OPT-IN for this type of use of Instagram users’ images is unacceptable, and a complete miscalculation of public sentiment regarding the clear dangers and harm inherent in such use.” Meta has now taken the @ tool offline, saying the intention was “to provide a useful creative tool and give people control over whether their public content could be referenced in this way.”

Meta

Nice intention, but it now states: “We’ve heard feedback that this feature missed the mark, so it is no longer available,” the company said. It is therefore no longer possible to tag people with their Instagram account and create an AI image based on their public photos, unless you screenshot those posts yourself and feed them to AI. SAG-AFTRA says: “Since the dangers of unauthorized digital replicas are well known, a feature that encouraged that behavior is ill-advised. We appreciate it being stopped. It’s the right thing to do.” As we’ve written, we live in a strange time when companies are dipping their toes in the water to see how much privacy we’re willing to give up. Meta has clearly put too much foot in the water. But it is good to see that it does not push through, but rather pulls it out of the water.