Meta Suspends Instagram's AI Deepfake Feature

Meta Suspends Instagram Deepfake AI Feature

Following significant negative feedback, Meta has decided to disable the feature announced this week that allowed users to generate AI images based on content from public Instagram accounts simply by mentioning them. This feature, as it was initially designed, enabled the use of content from any public Instagram account without the owner's consent.

“Earlier this week, we announced that one of the ways for people to generate images in Meta AI was to mention public Instagram accounts they wanted to reference,” Meta stated in an update to a blog post about its new Muse Image AI model. “Our intention was to provide a useful creative tool and give people control over the possibility of their public content being referenced in this way. We have heard feedback indicating that this feature did not meet expectations, so it is no longer available.”

Although Meta allowed users to opt-out by digging into the settings before completely disabling the feature, it still sparked intense criticism.

“Not only does this clearly erode our rights over our own image… but it is also an obvious tool for sextortion and other scams!” said Haley McNamara, executive director and head of strategy at the National Center on Sexual Exploitation, earlier on Friday. “Pursuing a high-risk design and then pressuring individuals to jump through hoops to opt-out is unacceptable.”

The Screen Actors Guild has recommended its members opt-out of the feature and provided instructions on how to do so.