Meta Has a New AI Image Tool, and I Already Used It to Deepfake My Friend’s Instagram

Meta has a new AI model out, this time dedicated to generating and editing AI images. And yes, you can use it on Instagram. But if you have a public account, you need to change your settings now to avoid ending up the unwitting subject of anyone’s AI creations.

The model, called Muse Image, is the first creative model from the new family of Muse Spark models made by Meta’s superintelligence labs. The company said in a blog post that it’s built to handle more complex requests, create composite photos and edit existing images. It’s available now on the Meta AI app, Instagram and WhatsApp, with plans to eventually bring it to Facebook, Messenger and advertisers. 

CEO Mark Zuckerberg showed off the new model on his Instagram on Tuesday. He showed some of the 30 new AI editing effects the model is powering for Instagram Stories, including images of numerous Zuckerberg clones, a 360 camera view with AI lead Alexandr Wang and an exposure portrait mode with Andrew Bosworth, Meta’s chief technology officer.

This isn’t the first time an AI company has tried to entice people to use its creative AI by offering to place you and your friends into the AI scenery. That was OpenAI’s pitch when it launched its ill-fated Sora video app in 2024. But OpenAI still drew ire from regular people and celebrities for its role in easily creating deepfakes. Meta’s new AI model poses the same risk.

Let’s momentarily step aside from the fact that this new model will probably lead to even more AI slop on Instagram. And that the pictures you upload to the Meta AI app are used to improve Meta’s services. There’s an important detail in the settings everyone with a public Instagram account should know. If you’re over 18 and have a public account, anyone with a Meta AI account can “tag” you in their AI image prompts and create hyperrealistic AI images including your likeness — otherwise known as deepfakes.

How to prevent yourself from being deepfaked

I gave the new model a spin to see just how easy it could be to create deepfakes. My CNET colleague Abrar Al-Heeti has a public Instagram account, and I was able to make an AI image of her as a pirate in less than a minute by including her Instagram username in my prompt. When I tried the same for myself, tagging my private Instagram account, Meta AI couldn’t complete the request.

Meta confirmed to CNET that creators with a public Instagram account can block people from creating AI content with their likeness with a setting toggle. Go to Instagram Settings > Sharing and reuse > Toggle off “Allow people to reuse your content on Instagram and with AI features at Meta.” You can adjust this control for posts and reels. Private accounts automatically don’t have their content accessible for anyone to remix or create with. (After our testing, Al-Heeti turned off this permission.)

You can also limit your risk of being deepfaked when tagging yourself in an image request for the first time in the Meta AI app. It will walk you through some steps to help the app recognize you. That includes taking a picture of your face and, optionally, uploading three photos of yourself. In this process, you can choose who is allowed to use your likeness, including only yourself, followers you approve, mutuals or everyone. You can adjust this in the app by going to Settings > Your likeness.

These controls will be essential for professional creators and influencers, whose names and likenesses are their brand and therefore their livelihood. Meta says its models have built-in protections to prevent the model from creating illegal, abusive or defamatory content. But like we saw with Sora, motivated bad actors can get around a model’s safeguards. We will have to wait and see if Meta’s are up to the challenge.