If you don’t change this setting, anyone can use your Instagram content with Meta AI

A few days ago, Meta introduced a new feature that lets anyone create content with your public Instagram photos and videos. This feature is part of Muse Image, the image generation model that Meta has rolled out on Instagram, WhatsApp, and the Meta AI app itself. If someone mentions your username with an @, the AI can use your images to generate invitations, custom graphics, or even ready-to-post compositions, all without your explicit permission. 

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If your account is public, this option is enabled by default, which means anyone can reuse your posts, reels, and videos to generate content using AI, without you getting any notification. Fortunately, we can prevent that use.

How to prevent the reuse of your content with Meta AI

If we want to keep some control over your images, the app gives us the option to disable this reuse. Here’s how:

• Open the Instagram app on your phone.

• Go to Settings and then Sharing and Reuse.

• Find the section Allow people to create and reuse your content on Instagram and with Meta AI.

• Turn off the Posts and Reels options.

The setting takes effect immediately, although anything created before you disable it will continue to exist. That setting also doesn’t prevent someone from taking a screenshot of your content and then running it through Meta AI to generate a variant or reuse it, but, at least, it makes the process harder. 

Given that Meta plans to expand Muse Image to Facebook and Messenger very soon —and while Google is already using your content to train its AI—, it’s worth reviewing this setting and deciding how you want your content to be used.