Meta suspends Instagram AI image feature over consent concerns
Meta removed its Muse image feature from Instagram on Friday, three days after unveiling it, saying the tool “missed the mark.” Muse allowed users to generate AI images drawing on photos from public Instagram accounts, and the objection centered on how it handled consent: adults with public accounts were included by default and had to opt out to keep their images from being used, and people were not notified when someone created an image from their likeness.
The feature drew pushback from users and from talent and performer groups. Creative agency CAA said no one’s “name, image, likeness, voice or creative work should be used by any third party, including AI models, without clear, documented consent,” and the actors’ union SAG-AFTRA urged members to opt out. The complaint is a familiar one for image-generation products: an opt-out default shifts the burden onto the subject and treats publicly posted photos as training and generation material unless the person actively objects.
Meta’s quick reversal suggests it underestimated how the consent design would land rather than the underlying capability, which the company can re-introduce with different defaults. The episode adds to scrutiny of how large platforms source the likenesses that feed consumer AI tools.