Meta Discontinues AI Image Feature Days After Backlash Over Privacy Concerns
Meta has discontinued an AI image-generation feature on Instagram following intense backlash regarding privacy and the lack of user consent. The move was praised by the actors' union SAG-AFTRA, which had criticized the feature for its potential to create nonconsensual digital replicas.
Why it matters
This incident underscores the growing tension between tech companies deploying AI tools and public concerns over data privacy and intellectual property rights.
Meta said on Friday it is discontinuing an AI feature launched this week that allowed users to generate images using public Instagram accounts, after drawing widespread criticism over privacy concerns, including from a Hollywood union."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."We've heard the feedback that this feature missed the mark, so it's no longer available," it said.Meta, owner of Facebook and Instagram, had launched Muse Image on Tuesday, its first image-generation model from Meta Superintelligence Labs.
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