Meta has disabled its newly launched Muse Image artificial intelligence generator just days after its debut, reversing course following sharp criticism from Hollywood's biggest talent agency and its largest performers' union over the tool's automatic opt-in policy for public Instagram accounts.

The company announced Friday that the feature was "no longer available" on Instagram, acknowledging the backlash directly in a statement posted to the platform. "Earlier this week, we announced that one way for people to generate images in Meta AI is by @-mentioning public Instagram accounts that they want to reference," Meta said. "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. We've heard the feedback that this feature missed the mark, so it's no longer available."

Muse Image, developed by Meta Superintelligence Labs, launched Tuesday and was integrated into the Meta AI chatbot, marketed by the company as a "creative partner that knows your world." At its core, the tool allowed any user to tag a public or unprotected Instagram account, instantly making that account's content available for the AI to generate new images or "remixes" of, with the resulting images then remaining online permanently. The feature applied automatically to all public Instagram accounts belonging to users 18 or older, with private accounts and those belonging to users under 18 excluded, though public account holders had to actively opt out rather than opt in to avoid being included.

That opt-out structure quickly drew fire from talent and privacy advocates. Creative Artists Agency, the powerhouse Hollywood talent agency representing clients including Zoe Saldaña, Tom Cruise and Charlize Theron, issued a statement Wednesday calling on Meta........

© International Business Times