Meta removes controversial AI feature on Instagram after backlash

Meta has removed a controversial feature that allowed users to modify photos from public Instagram accounts using AI. The feature, which rolled out earlier this week along with a range 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 a feature that allowed individuals to generate images by @mentioning public Instagram accounts they wanted to link to. The feature, which was not intended to alert users if their photos were being used in this way, prompted immediate backlash.

TechCrunch has written its own guide telling users how to disable the feature.

Now Meta has reversed course. The company gave one blog post It announced on Friday that it was removing the feature. Puck News founder Dylan Byers was the first to share the message the company’s decision.

“Our intent was to provide a useful creative tool and give people control over whether their public content could be referenced in this way,” the company wrote on its blog. “We have heard feedback that this feature has not served its purpose and is therefore no longer available.”

TechCrunch has 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 abused with great abandon – often generate nude images of female celebrities. Platforms have tried to mitigate this trend, although the guardrails introduced have often fallen short.

In the case of Meta’s new feature, it seems somewhat obvious that it would have been abused in this way. In fact, Byers notes that the decision to eliminate the feature came “under the scrutiny of users and talent agencies, including CAA.”