What Meta launched
Meta has released Muse Image, a new AI image generator built by Meta Superintelligence Labs, the company’s dedicated AI unit. Internally code-named Mango, Muse is available for free through the Meta AI app, as well as on Instagram Stories and WhatsApp.
Alongside it, Meta introduced a set of new AI-powered effects for Instagram Stories.
What Muse can do
The core use cases look familiar for an AI image tool. Users can generate cartoonish images, lean on preset prompts when they need inspiration, and edit images by typing instructions, such as placing themselves in front of a historical landmark, removing a photobomber from a shot, or producing a functional QR code.
Other applications highlighted by Meta include creating custom ads, experimenting with interior decorating ideas such as previewing a secondhand couch in a garage, and prompt-based image editing. The interior design workflow is designed to connect with Facebook Marketplace.
Muse is free for everyday creation, with a subscription required once usage crosses a certain limit. Meta also said Muse Video, presumably an AI video generator, is already in development.
The Instagram feature causing concern
The most discussed capability lets users manipulate another Instagram user’s images with AI, as long as that profile is public. A user tags the person, and Muse can take that picture and generate a new image from it.
Reactions on X were sharp. One widely shared post called the practice a privacy landmine waiting to detonate.
Meta’s policy states that people may be able to create content with your Instagram content using AI features at Meta, and that users will not be notified about content created using AI features at Meta. The company also says users have controls to disable this kind of co-option of their pictures.
The feature is opt-out by default, which places it within a longer pattern of Meta products that have prompted questions about consent and data use.
Why that pattern matters
Meta’s track record on user data is part of the context shaping the reaction to Muse. In 2019, the company paid a then-record $5 billion fine to the FTC after regulators found that Cambridge Analytica had improperly harvested data from tens of millions of Facebook users, without their knowledge, to build voter-targeting profiles ahead of the 2016 U.S. election. Facebook had known about the data misuse for years before it became public.
In 2021, Meta shut down Facebook’s facial-recognition system, which had automatically identified people in photos and videos, amid lawsuits and regulatory pressure over its collection of biometric data.
An opt-out default for a feature that uses people’s photos to train or fuel AI outputs echoes the concerns regulators and users have raised in those earlier cases.
Broader context
Muse is one of several AI products Meta has released over the past year, joining an AI assistant called Creator and an app called Pocket that can be used to vibe-code video games. The company has faced questions about the coherence of its overall AI strategy, though it remains on track to spend heavily on AI infrastructure as it continues building out services.
Run a free scan to see your AI Visibility Score, SEO rating, and local citation accuracy.