Meta has hit pause on part of its newly announced artificial intelligence tool after days of intense public backlash, pulling back a feature that had allowed people to reach into strangers' social media photos. The company said it was suspending the feature amid mounting criticism over consent and privacy, a rare retreat that came within days of the tool's high-profile debut.
The feature at the center of the controversy was built around Instagram's public accounts. According to the company, it is suspending a feature of its tool, called Muse, that allowed users to generate images using content from public Instagram accounts, effectively letting the technology pull in and rework photos that people had shared openly on the platform.
The way the feature worked helped explain why it alarmed so many users. According to the account, the tool, known as Muse image, let someone interact with Meta's AI, tag a public account and then have the system modify images from that account, for example turning a friend's photos into cartoons or placing people into playful costumes, all generated automatically.
For Meta, the feature was also a showcase for its newest technology. According to the account, Muse image was in large part a way to show off the company's latest large language model, which it calls Muse Spark, and the feature was debuted on Instagram as part of that rollout before the backlash forced a rapid change of course.
The core of the objection centered on how consent was handled. According to the account, much of the backlash stemmed from the fact that users had to opt out of having their public photos used for the feature rather than opt in, meaning that in practice anyone with a public account could have their images pulled in and altered whether or not they were aware of it or had agreed to it.
Meta did point to ways people could protect themselves, though critics said the burden was misplaced. According to the account, the company noted that users could go into their settings and turn the feature off, or make their account private altogether, but many people may not have known the feature existed or that they needed to take those steps to keep their images out of it.
The concerns extended well beyond ordinary users. According to the account, the actors' union urged its members, numbering many thousands of performers, to opt out by going into Instagram to make sure their images were not being used in this way, adding to the pressure that ultimately led Meta to pull the feature down by Friday, just days after it launched.
The episode is not the first time an image tool of this kind has run into trouble. According to the account, X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, is being investigated by governments around the world over a similar feature from last year that people used to digitally undress non-consenting people, in some cases minors, underscoring how fraught the rollout of such tools has become for technology companies.