Meta $META removed a feature from its Muse Image AI tool on Instagram last Friday after users and Hollywood industry groups objected to the way it handled consent, the company said.
Rolled out Tuesday alongside a broader suite of AI tools, the feature worked by allowing users to reference public Instagram accounts in their prompts, pulling photos from those accounts into newly generated images. Rather than requiring users to actively agree to participate, the feature enrolled all public accounts automatically — leaving account holders unaware that their photos and likenesses were potentially being used.
"Our intent was to provide a useful creative tool and to give people control over whether their public content could be referenced in this way," Meta said in a statement. "We've heard the feedback that this feature missed the mark, so it's no longer available."
Creative Artists Agency contacted Meta on behalf of its clients, calling the feature irresponsible, according to the New York Times. "Artists deserve to decide if and how their likeness and work is used, with consent and the ability to set their own terms," the agency said in a statement. The actors union SAG-AFTRA had issued a statement Thursday condemning the opt-in setup as "an utter miscalculation of public sentiment" around AI use, and greeted the removal by declaring it a "win." London-based human rights charity Privacy International told the BBC the episode was "the latest sign AI companies see people's images and data as raw material to be exploited."
Access to Muse Image through WhatsApp and the Meta AI app was not affected by the pullback. The New York Times reported that Instagram-specific features announced in the same rollout, such as Muse Image-generated filters, continue to function on the platform.
Meta introduced Muse Image on Tuesday as the company's first in-house image generation model, developed by Meta Superintelligence Labs and made available to consumers through the Meta AI app and to advertisers through its Advantage+ ad platform. The model had been handled previously by outside vendors including Midjourney and Black Forest Labs. Among its features at launch was the ability to tag public Instagram accounts to pull their photos into generated images — a capability that, according to prior coverage, was on by default with an opt-out option available to users.
Meta also launched a public developer API for its Muse Spark 1.1 model last Thursday, the first time the company has charged businesses for access to one of its AI models. The company said a video generation model, Muse Video, is in development, though no release date has been given.