Meta's New AI Image Generator Sparks Controversy Over User Photo Use

Meta on Tuesday unveiled Muse Image, its new AI image generator built by Meta Superintelligence Labs, the company’s dedicated AI unit. The feature, which was internally code-named Mango, is now available for free through the Meta AI app, as well as on Instagram Stories and WhatsApp. The new model allows users to create goofy, cartoonish images and comes with “presets” — prefabricated image prompts — to “spark ideas.” However, a feature that allows users to manipulate another Instagram user’s images with AI, as long as that user’s profile is public, has raised concerns.

Users merely tag the person, and it allows them to take their picture and use it to create a new AI image. Said one X user after The Verge first pointed out how potentially invasive this is: “Pulling real users into generated photos without explicit consent is a privacy landmine waiting to detonate.” Meta policy states that “people may be able to create content with your Instagram content using AI features at Meta” and that “you will not be notified about content created using AI features at Meta.” Meta claims users “have control” over this feature, noting that there are settings you can use to disable this kind of co-option of your pictures if you want to. Muse has other, less invasive applications, such as creating custom ads and experimenting with interior decorating ideas.

The model also features prompt-based image editing, which lets users create images to share across Meta’s apps and platforms. “Ask it to mock up an image of you in front of a historical landmark, cleanly erase a photobomber from the background of a shot, or write a custom prompt to build a functional QR code,” the company offers. At the same time, Meta is launching a host of new AI effects for Instagram Stories, powered by Muse — notably, the same platform at the center of the photo-tagging concerns above.

Those effects include customizable filters that can modify existing photos. Meta says use of the new AI model is free for “everyday creation,” though users will need a subscription plan once they exceed a certain limit. The company also said Muse Video — presumably an AI video generator — is “already in development.” Meta’s privacy record is one reason for users’ unease over Muse.

The company paid a then-record $5 billion fine to the FTC in 2019, after regulators found that the political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica had improperly harvested data from tens of millions of Facebook users — without their knowledge — to build voter-targeting profiles ahead of the 2016 U.S. election. Facebook had known about the data misuse for years before it became public.