Meta has removed a feature from a tool Artificial intelligence (AI) recently launched after receiving criticism for using the accounts of instagram as material to create images generated by AI.
The decision was made on Friday, less than a week after Instagram’s parent company and Facebook will launch Muse Image, its first image generation model available through the company’s artificial intelligence assistant, Meta AI.
“Our intention was to provide a useful creative tool and allow users to decide whether their public content could be cited in this way,” the company said in a statement. “We’ve taken into account feedback that this feature missed the mark and is no longer available.”
Like other AI applications capable of generating images, Muse Image creates images from user suggestions. But it also made it so that, automatically, photos published on all public Instagram accounts could be used by the AI tool as a reference when creating new images.
This sparked a flurry of social media posts raising privacy concerns and offering instructions to Instagram users to activate an option that would restrict Muse Image’s access to their accounts.
Hollywood was also quick to express concerns about the imaging feature.
The Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists union has asked its members to modify the settings of their Instagram account to protect their image.
In a statement posted on the X social network, SAG-AFTRA applauded Meta’s decision to disable the feature.
“Given the well-known risks posed by non-consensual digital replication, a feature that encouraged such behavior is reckless,” the union said. “We appreciate that it has stopped being offered. It is the right thing to do.”
This story was translated from English to Spanish with an artificial intelligence tool and was reviewed by an editor before publication.