Summary:
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Meta launches Muse Image AI generator using public Instagram photos, sparking backlash from SAG-AFTRA and Creative Artists Agency.
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Users urged to adjust settings to keep photos out of the AI tool, as concerns about privacy and consent grow.
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Meta defends the tool, saying it includes safeguards and allows users to opt out easily through Instagram settings.
Meta this week rolled out Muse Image, an artificial intelligence image generator that can pull from public Instagram accounts to create new pictures, and the union SAG-AFTRA is urging users to change their settings to keep their photos out of it.
The tool, developed by Meta’s Superintelligence Labs, launched Tuesday and is already available in the Meta AI app, in Instagram Stories in the United States and on WhatsApp in some countries, according to Meta. The company said it will come to Facebook soon.
According to The New York Times, any adult with a public Instagram account was automatically opted in when the feature went live, and Meta did not notify those users beforehand. The Times reported that someone using the Meta AI chatbot can draw on part or all of a public account’s published photos to generate new images.
On Thursday, SAG-AFTRA released a statement recommending that its members and all Instagram users opt out. “Meta now lets anyone use your Instagram photos in AI images without your consent,” the union wrote, adding that users should “take action to protect your likeness.”
The Creative Artists Agency raised similar concerns. In a statement reported by the Los Angeles Times, the agency called on Meta to make protection the default rather than the exception and to let people opt in if they want their likeness used for AI content.
Meta has defended the rollout and said the tool includes safeguards. “We built Muse Image with strong controls and safety guardrails from day one,” the company said in a statement. Meta said private accounts and accounts belonging to users under 18 are automatically excluded, that adult users with public accounts can opt out in a couple of clicks, and that it will act on content that violates its Community Standards.
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Users who want to opt out without switching their account to private can do so through Instagram’s settings. Open the app, tap your profile, then tap the three lines in the top-right corner. Scroll to the sharing and reuse section, where a setting governs whether other people can use your content on Instagram and with AI features across Meta, with separate toggles for posts and reels. Setting an account to private also removes it from the tool, according to the Times.
The dispute lands amid broader public unease about AI. A Pew Research Center survey found that 50% of U.S. respondents said they were more concerned than excited about the growing use of AI, compared with 10% who felt the reverse.
