Meta has removed the Muse Image feature, which allowed users to generate images based on mentions of public Instagram accounts. The company announced this change in an update to the official launch of the model.
On July 7, Meta introduced Muse Image as the first image generation model from Meta Superintelligence Labs, integrated into Meta AI. Among its features was the option to include a public Instagram profile in the prompt, enabling the service to use publicly available photos to create images.
Just three days later, the company updated the announcement, stating that this feature was no longer available. The reason given was that the option "did not meet user expectations" regarding privacy.
According to The Guardian, Muse Image faced criticism for its automatic inclusion and privacy risks. Actress Hannah Einbinder called for the feature to be disabled.
The SAG-AFTRA union deemed any mechanism other than explicit consent for using images unacceptable. Following the feature's discontinuation, the organization supported Meta's decision:
"Any use of Instagram users' images without explicit and noticeable consent is unacceptable and represents a complete miscalculation of public sentiment regarding the obvious dangers and harms associated with such use."
Nonetheless, the Muse Image model remains available in Meta AI for generating and editing images based on text prompts and photographs.
In the announcement, Meta also noted that Muse Image is utilized in over 30 new AI effects for Instagram Stories and in WhatsApp chats with Meta AI in a limited number of countries.
As a reminder, on June 9, Meta unveiled the multimodal model Muse Spark 1.1 for agent tasks and coding.