\n Likeness of dog wearing glasses and turtleneck sweater generated by Muse Image | Image by Meta\/website; Black background | Image by Canva <\/p>\n
Meta\u2019s new AI image generator is drawing criticism from privacy advocates after the company enabled the feature by default for public Instagram accounts, allowing users to generate AI images based on photos from public profiles unless account holders opt out.<\/p>\n
The feature, called Muse Image<\/a>, launched this week in the United States as part of Meta\u2019s expanded artificial intelligence offerings. It allows users to tag public Instagram accounts in prompts to create AI-generated images using photos from those profiles.<\/p>\n Privacy experts argue<\/a> the rollout places the burden on users to discover and disable a setting they may not know exists.<\/p>\n Public Accounts Automatically Included<\/p>\n According to Meta, Muse Image is designed to personalize AI-generated images by incorporating public Instagram content.<\/p>\n Users can create images by referencing public profiles, combining photos of people with other elements such as clothing, objects, locations, and artistic styles.<\/p>\n Meta said private accounts and accounts belonging to users younger than 18 are automatically excluded from the feature. However, adult public accounts are enrolled by default unless users manually change their settings.<\/p>\n Meta also said Instagram users will not receive notifications if someone uses their public content to generate AI images.<\/p>\n Privacy Advocates Push Back<\/p>\n