Meta launched Muse Image, its answer to viral AI tools like Google's Nana Banana and ChatGPT's Images 2.0 models, but the new app came with some controversy.

Last week, Meta Superintelligence Labs released its first image-generation model, which promises to produce high-quality images that understand complex prompts and multi-image references. Meta's competitive edge is that users can access these features directly in their favorite social apps, starting with Instagram and WhatsApp, and soon on Facebook and Messenger. However, at launch, this also came with a major caveat for anyone who wanted to use it.

A brief note in the release said that users could generate images from public Instagram accounts with a simple @ mention. The idea was that you could create images that were "rooted in your world." Of course, this was immediately met with online backlash, with users outraged that the toggle was automatically turned on or "opted in" without their knowledge, not being told when someone creates an AI image of you, and no way of deleting existing images.

Meta has since pulled the feature, saying in a statement: "Our intent was to provide a useful creative tool and to give people control over whether their public ​content could be referenced in this way."

The fact that the feature was ultimately removed is a compelling example of community backlash producing real, tangible impact—especially on issues as sensitive as personal identity. This underscores the need for greater transparency around what companies are doing, so the public can respond appropriately and, ideally, drive positive change. It also illustrates the need for keeping good habits when posting online.

"You can reduce the risk. Avoid posting high-resolution close-ups of faces or hands. Strengthen privacy settings so only trusted people can view your content," Raj Ananthanpillai, founder and CEO of Trua, and author of the new book The Trust Crisis told The Deep View.

Our Deeper View

This issue goes far beyond Meta, which is not new to being under fire for violating user privacy settings. Ever since AI image generation models first popped onto the scene, the biggest question has been about the datasets used to train them. Oftentimes, these models just scrape whatever is available on the open web, which, of course, can include publicly available images of you and copyrighted materials. This opens a broader discussion about whether it is possible to maintain control over your image and likeness in the age of AI. This issue is likely to be exacerbated by the rise of AI wearables, which require cameras to see the world around them and therefore can capture passersby or non-consenting human content. In addition to new laws and regulations that will eventually be needed to govern this area, societal norms and expectations will also need to be established at the level of culture.