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Your Instagram photos can now be used by other users to make AI-generated content, at least if your account is public. Meta launched its latest AI tool, Muse Image, which will allow people to use publicly posted content in making new images — and many accounts have been opted in to the programme by default.

The tool was announced on Tuesday and has since garnered widespread condemnation for making social media an even more dangerous place.

Meta issued a statement outlining some safety protocols it has implemented when rolling out Muse Image.

“Private accounts and those belonging to users under 18 are automatically excluded and adult users with public accounts can opt out with just a couple clicks. We will take action against any content that violates our Community Standards,” the Los Angeles Times quoted the company as saying.

Muse Image has been launched on Instagram and WhatsApp so far, with plans to bring it to Facebook and Messenger soon.

How to opt-out

For anyone who doesn’t want their likeness to become part of the palette for Meta’s new AI, there is a way out. Users can choose to opt out by digging into account settings on Instagram.

The settings can be accessed by tapping the three lines on the top right of the profile screen.

From the list of sub-settings, go to “Sharing and Reuse” under “How others can interact with you”.

From there, scroll to find the options allowing people to reuse posts, reels and original audio with Meta AI and turn the permissions off.

The Screen Actors Guild - American Federation of Television and Radio Artists issued a statement decrying the development on Friday.

“Anything other than a clear and conspicuous opt-in for these types of uses of Instagram users’ images is unacceptable and an utter miscalculation of public sentiment regarding the obvious dangers and harms inherent in such use,” the union said, referring to the fact many accounts have been included in the programme without having explicitly agreed to it.

This outrage follows the misuse of other AI image generation tools on social media, like X’s Grok, which used people’s pictures to create images of them in revealing clothing at the request of other users.

The immense backlash to the AI tool digitally undressing women and children led to X restricting Grok’s image generation abilities to paid subscribers only. Later, the company geo-blocked the tool’s ability to create revealing images in places where doing so is against the law.