Meta's new AI, Muse, lets anyone edit your Instagram photos - Opt out now!
What is going on at Meta?! With Muse Image, Meta's latest AI image generator, your pictures on Insta can be used by others for AI content creation. This invasive feature is on by default, so opt out or stop using Meta entirely.
Important: To ensure others cannot edit your posted images on Instagram, make sure your profile is set to private, or even better: Delete your Insta account and choose an alternative!
Quick steps to opt out (If you want to keep a public profile)
- Open Instagram & go to Settings
- Click Share and Reuse
- Toggle to turn off the button,Allow people to reuse your content on Instagram and with AI features.
On Tuesday, July 7th, Meta announced the rollout of its first image generation model, Muse Image, from Meta Superintelligence Labs. This AI image generator allows Meta users to blend images into new creations, use ‘presets’ which are suggested prompts to get ideas, sketch changes and edits on images.
While these are pretty standard AI image editing features, the most concerning feature of all, which people are sharing concerns over online, is the way Instagram users can @ mention some Instagram accounts within the Meta AI app to add that user’s Instagram account to the Muse Image creator. This means that users can edit other users’ images by simply typing their handle, if their Instagram account is set to public.
Note: In the future, Muse Image will also become available in Facebook and Messenger.
For Meta, a public Instagram account is fair game
Instagram’s policy states, “If you have a public account, other Instagram users may be able to create new reels, posts or stories that reuse part or all of your published photos, videos or reels in features, such as remix, sequence, templates and stickers.” and “people may be able to create content with your Instagram content using AI features at Meta.”
In short: If you have an Instagram account that’s set to public, any content you post is fair game to be used for AI editing. You might be thinking this is not an issue because before this people could always screenshot your images and use them in other AI editing tools, but there are a number of privacy concerns here.
Another opt-in by default
By having a public Instagram profile, as a default your images can be reused by Muse, and Meta has stated this in its policy. But here’s the problem: The people who have public profiles on Instagram did not explicitly opt in and consent to their content being used - not only by Meta, but now by other users who can manipulate content using AI.
“Meta has once again chosen the creepiest possible path. People should not wake up to discover their face has become raw material for someone else’s AI experiment. This is another invasion of consumers’ privacy. Instead of asking for meaningful consent, Meta quietly defaults users into the system and buries the opt-out in account settings.”
J.B. Branch, the director of federal AI governance and technology policy at Public Citizen, said in a statement.
Meta has released this new feature, and for some it might seem fun to edit and create images, but it blurs a line in terms of content ownership and how tech giants dictate who and how your content is used. It should remind us that anything we share online no longer belongs to us - and in the time of AI, it can be heavily edited and manipulated.
It’s just another AI feature that nobody asked for
It used to be annoying ads that ruined apps and services, but today it’s the introduction of unwanted AI features like AI email writers. Without a doubt, Big Tech companies like Meta, Google, and Microsoft are some of the worst companies when it comes to quietly rolling out AI features and pushing users to use them.
Think about it: Google’s new era for AI search is killing the open web, Microsoft is increasing its prices and installing its 365 Copilot wherever possible, and Meta even went as far as to roll out Meta AI into WhatsApp - which cannot be removed!
So in the time of AI, as greedy Tech Giants race to develop the most advanced AI models, it’s not surprising that Meta is rolling out Muse Image. With that said, it’s concerning that it allows Instagram users to edit other users’ pictures, and many probably do not even know that their content is fair game!
So, if you’re still on Instagram, make sure your account is set to private. Or, if this weird AI feature is the final straw, you could even ditch Meta Products completely!
Take a look at these alternatives:
