Meta interrupted Friday a artificial intelligence feature that allowed users to generate images by referencing the audience Instagram accountsdays after introducing the tool as part of a broader rollout of AI-powered creative features on Instagram.
The company announced the move in an update to its Instagram blog.
“Earlier this week, we announced that one way for people to generate images in Meta AI is to @-mention public Instagram accounts they want to reference,” the company wrote. “Our intention was to provide a useful creative tool and allow users to control whether their public content could be referenced in this way. We heard feedback that this feature missed the mark and is therefore no longer available.”
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THE functionality was announced on Tuesday alongside more than 30 new AI-powered effects for Instagram Stories using Muse Image, Meta Superintelligence Labs’ premier image generation model. According to Instagram, the new effects allow users to transform photos with a single click, while a redesigned Edit Composer lets users preview AI-generated edits before sharing them.
As part of the rollout, Meta also introduced a feature allowing users to @-mention public Instagram accounts in Meta AI to generate creative images featuring those accounts, including personalized birthday cards, group travel memes, and other edited images.
“We want our community to control how their content is used creatively,” Instagram said in Tuesday’s announcement. The company said users who don’t want their public Instagram content to be used through the AI feature can opt out through the app’s share and reuse settings.
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SAG-AFTRA, which represents artists in film, television and other media, on Thursday urged its members to opt out of feature filmmaking, writing on social media: “Take steps to protect your image.”
Neal K. Shah, an NIH-funded care researcher and CEO of CareYaya, said he has already seen AI-generated ads misuse his image to promote supplements falsely claiming to help people with dementia.
“I think the biggest alarm bells that went off for me was that I saw fraud happening in real time,” Shah told FOX Business. He said his followers began messaging him after seeing ads that appeared to show him endorsing products he never promoted.
“All these seniors were scammed, and my image was used to scam them, and there’s nothing I can do about it,” Shah said, adding that he spent hours responding to his followers warning them that the ads were fake.
Shah said he has since started warning viewers of his own videos not to trust ads that appear to show him promoting products and has spent hours responding to followers who ask if the endorsements are real. He also said he repeatedly reported the ads to Meta, but they remained on the platform.
Friday’s update removes the ability to generate images by @-mentioning public Instagram accounts, while leaving in place the broader rollout of Instagram’s new AI-powered creative tools.
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Meta has made artificial intelligence a central focus of its business, expanding AI-based features across Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger, while investing heavily in AI infrastructure and its Llama family of AI models.
In response to a request for comment from FOX Business, Meta directed Fox Business to the updated Instagram blog announcing the change.
