Influencers signed by Kyle Yelmiss's agency have built their Instagram profiles entirely on authentic life content. However, on Tuesday, Meta, the parent company of Instagram, launched its Muse Image AI drawing tool. This tool can scrape publicly available photos from the platform and generate entirely new AI images based on them, fundamentally undermining influencers' control over their own likeness and image.
By default, the vast majority of accounts on the platform automatically authorize the tool to use their public photos. This move has ignited significant apprehension across the entire entertainment industry.
Yelmiss, CEO of influencer agency G&B, stated: "It is inherently unreasonable for a tool proven to cause rights infringement to require users to actively and manually opt out of authorization."
Leading talent agency CAA formally protested to Meta on behalf of its clients.
CAA issued a statement saying: "We demand that Meta make likeness protection the default rule for the Muse Image AI, not an exception that users must manually enable. If users wish to authorize their likeness for AI creation, it should be an opt-in choice made actively by the user. Artists have the right to decide if, and how, their likeness and work are used. The platform must obtain explicit consent and support user-customized terms of use. Creators should be able to set usage restrictions and track the use of their materials to prevent unauthorized endorsements and commercial misuse."
"CAA recognizes the value of new technology, but not at the expense of individual rights and livelihoods. The future of the creative industry is built on respect for creators' ownership and right to self-determination."
The Screen Actors Guild‐American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) also harshly criticized the tool's launch plan.
The union for performing artists released a statement: "This type of AI scraping and use of Instagram users' likenesses is completely unacceptable without a prominent, clear, and active opt-in mechanism. The platform has seriously misjudged public sentiment, ignoring the obvious risks and rights infringements inherent in this feature."
Hollywood has long maintained a wary stance towards AI technology, with a proliferation of deepfakes in the past: generating fake images and videos of celebrities without permission, fabricating their words and actions. Celebrities like Jamie Lee Curtis have been featured in AI-generated fake product endorsement ads. Last year, OpenAI's release of the Sora 2 video generation model saw many users generate images of deceased celebrities without family consent, sparking collective protests from Hollywood. OpenAI subsequently promised to provide more granular control over material usage to rights holders.
In its official blog, Meta defined Muse Image as "a creative assistant that understands you, easily turning ideas into high-definition images, supporting download and sharing across the web." Promotional videos showcased various use cases: inserting a friend into a band photo, garage furniture concept design, and more. Meta stated that all AI-generated images carry a watermark, and users can report inappropriate content.
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