Meta is facing widespread condemnation after a new feature lets users instantly turn publicly available photos and other people’s media into AI content without their consent.
Muse Image, launched on July 7, is the first image generation model from Meta Superintelligence Labs, and is available in Meta AI.
The AI model allows users to tag or mention a public Instagram account via the Meta AI app to bring other users’ profiles and media into their images.
Meta AI’s ‘Vibes’ feature floods platform with sexual videos of children and explicit Bollywood deepfakes “Whether you want to design a custom event invitation, mock up a collaborative creative concept, or generate a personalised graphic, tagging a username lets Meta AI use public photos to build a visual that’s ready to post,” Meta said in a blog.
“You have control over how your content can be tagged for AI creation with an easy setting to turn this feature off at any time.” Hollywood union, SAG-AFTRA, slammed Meta in an X post, urging both members and non-members to revoke the usage permissions.
It warned about the dangers of images being used in such a manner.
“Meta now lets anyone use your Instagram photos in AI images without your consent.
SAG-AFTRA recommends that #SagAftraMembers (and all Instagram users) opt-OUT of Meta’s new AI image generation tool, Muse Image.
Take action to protect your likeness,” posted the union.
Users are especially wary of AI-morphed images after Elon Musk-owned X allowed users to “nudify” real people’s profile photos through the Grok AI chatbot, or create sexual deepfakes with real people’s photos and circulate these on X.
How to turn off permissions In order to prevent public photos from being used or remixed into AI creations, users can head to their Instagram settings, look for the ‘Sharing and reuse’ section, and toggle the permission controls that allow people to use your Instagram content for AI creations.
The update may not be visible to all users yet.
