Meta pulls Muse Image feature after users object to their likenesses being used without consent

Meta launched Muse Image, its first AI image generation tool for Instagram, with a feature allowing users to tag any public account and generate AI images based on that account's content — without the account owner's knowledge or permission. Public Instagram users were opted in by default. The backlash was swift, with SAG-AFTRA calling the reversal a "win" and Privacy International describing it as "the latest sign AI companies see people's images and data as raw material to be exploited."

Within days, Meta pulled the feature and admitted it had "missed the mark." The company's post-mortem framing — "our intent was to provide a useful creative tool and to give people control" — somewhat glosses over the fact that the default setting gave users no control at all. Meta says it "heard the feedback," which is one way to describe a union mobilization and an international human rights organization weighing in.