Then Tuesday was revealed Muse Image, its new AI image generator built by Meta Superintelligence Labs, the company’s dedicated AI unit. The feature, which was internally codenamed Mango, is now available for free through the Meta AI app, as well as Instagram Stories and WhatsApp.
Unfortunately, the new model is already causing controversy.
What exactly can you do with Muse? It looks like the use cases are similar to most other AI image generators — you’ll be able to create a lot of silly, cartoony images, for example.
If you’re out of inspiration and can’t come up with original prompts on your own, Meta says Muse comes with “presets” — pre-made image prompts — to “spark ideas.”
However, one particularly eyebrow-raising feature allows users to manipulate another Instagram user’s images with artificial intelligence, as long as the user’s profile is public. Users simply tag the person and it allows them to take their photo and use it to create a new AI image.
User X said after The Verge first pointed out how potentially invasive this is: “Putting real users in photos created without express consent is a privacy landmine waiting to explode.”
The Meta policy states that “people may be able to create content with your content on Instagram using AI features in Meta” and that “you will not be notified about content created using AI features in Meta.”
Meta claims that users are “in control” of this feature, noting that there are settings you can use it to disable this kind of co-selection of your images if you want.
Muse has other, less invasive applications. One is create custom ads; (Artificial intelligence has mainly infiltrated advertising in the past year). Another is experimenting with interior decorating ideas — in a promotional video, a user leverages Muse to see what a used couch might look like in their garage. This latest feature is designed to integrate with Facebook Marketplace, Meta’s popular Craigslist-like site for used furniture and accessories.
The model also features instant update-based image editing, which allows users to create images for sharing across Meta’s apps and platforms.
“Ask it to mimic an image of you in front of a historical landmark, cleanly erase a light bomber from the background of a shot, or write a custom prompt to create a working QR code,” the company offers.
At the same time, Meta is launching a host of new AI effects for Instagram Stories, powered by Muse — specifically, the same platform at the center of the photo-tagging concerns above. These effects include customizable filters that can modify existing photos.
Meta says the new AI model is free to use for “daily creation,” though users will need a subscription plan once they exceed a certain threshold.
The company also said that Muse Video – possibly an artificial intelligence video generator – is “already in development”. TechCrunch has reached out to Meta for more information.
Meta has released a number of AI apps and services over the past year, including an AI assistant called Creator, and Pocketan app that can be used for vibe coding video games. The company has been accused of having a nebulous AI strategyalthough it still is well on your way to spending big on AI infrastructure this year as it continues to develop its services.
Meta’s privacy history is one reason for users’ concern about Muse. The company paid a record then $5 billion fine to the FTC in 2019 after regulators found that political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica had improperly collected data from tens of millions of Facebook users — without their knowledge — to create voter-targeting profiles ahead of the 2016 US election. Facebook had known about the misuse of data for years before it was made public.
Separately, the company shut down Facebook’s facial recognition system in 2021 — a tool that automatically recognized people in photos and videos — amid lawsuits and regulatory pressure to collect biometric data. Basically, Muse’s photo-tagging feature, which is opt-out by default, fits a pattern that users and regulators have pointed out in the past: widespread use of people’s data unless they actively turn it off.
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