Meta shuts down AI image feature

The tech company last Tuesday introduced a tool that let users generate images using public Instagram accounts

Meta has shuttered an artificial intelligence image creation feature after just three days, following public backlash.

The tech company last Tuesday introduced a tool that let users generate images using public Instagram accounts. By Friday, the feature was pulled, after Meta received widespread privacy-related criticism.

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 shared by Reuters. We’ve heard the feedback that this feature missed the mark, so it’s no longer available.

According to Reuters, the feature had faced backlash related to privacy concerns. It had allowed anyone to generate an image of another person by public Instagram username in a prompt. Public accounts had been included by default unless users navigate to a setting to opt out.

Meta’s own policy states that users will not be notified about content created using AI features at Meta.  The opt-out also did not apply retroactively, meaning that images generated before a user turns off the setting remain in the system.

According to the Reuters report, SAG-AFTRA, the union representing actors and other media professionals, urged its members and other Instagram users to opt out of the feature.

Anything other than a clear and conspicuous opt-in for these types of uses of Instagram users’ images is unacceptable, and an utter miscalculation of public sentiment regarding the obvious dangers and harms inherent in such use, SAG-AFTRA said.

In the wake of Meta’s decision to remove the feature, a spokesperson for the union welcomed the move, calling it the responsible thing to do.