Meta has withdrawn its creepy new AI image tool following major public backlash. Muse Image allowed people to generate images using public Instagram posts and profile pictures as references. Users claim this tool manipulates their content without their explicit consent and that this approach poses a probable risk of misuse, harassment, and deepfake‑style edits.
Before it was pulled, Muse Image could use photos showing faces, families, and children in everyday contexts. Meta allowed users to adjust whether others could reuse their posts and Reels for AI, but those settings were hard to find, and the default, of course, is to allow AI-related use.
How to turn off Instagram and AI reusability in the app.
Credit: Meta
The backlash spread across social media, not just among professional content creators but also among regular users, who called the tool too invasive. Meta’s defense is that all public Instagram posts are usable by its AI systems per the app’s user agreement. Still, Muse Image clearly undermined user trust, especially amid growing concerns about deepfakes and image scraping.
“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 wrote in a blog post update published July 10. We’ve heard the feedback that this feature missed the mark, so it’s no longer available.”
