--- title: "Meta’s New Image-Generating AI Is Trained on Your Instagram and Facebook Posts" description: "Earlier this week, Meta announced a new AI image generator dubbed \"Imagine with Meta AI\" which is trained on Facebook and Instagram posts." date: "2023-12-08" modified: "2023-12-08" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/meta-image-generating-ai-trained-instagram-facebook" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" - "Future Society" tags: - "facebook" - "image generators" - "instagram" - "Meta" --- # Meta’s New Image-Generating AI Is Trained on Your Instagram and Facebook Posts ![Earlier this week, Meta announced a new AI image generator dubbed "Imagine with Meta AI" which is trained on Facebook and Instagram posts.]() *\Image: Meta\* ## Cashing In Earlier this week, Meta [announced]() a new AI image generator dubbed "Imagine with Meta AI." And while it may seem like an otherwise conventional tool meant to compete with the likes of Google's DALL-E 3, Diffusion, and Midjourney, Meta's underlying "Emu" image-synthesis model has a dirty little secret. What's that? Well, as [*Ars Technica* points out](), the social media company trained it using a whopping 1.1 billion Instagram and Facebook photos, [per the company's official documentation]() — the latest example of Meta squeezing every last drop out of its user base and its ever-valuable data. In many ways, it's a data privacy nightmare waiting to unfold. While Meta claims to only have used photos that were set to "public," it's likely only a matter of time until somebody finds a way to abuse the system. After all, Meta's [track record is abysmal]() when it comes to ensuring its users' privacy, to say the least. ## So Creative Meta is [selling its latest tool](), which was made available exclusively in the US this week, as a "fun and creative" way to generate "content in chats." "This standalone experience for creative hobbyists lets you create images with technology from Emu, our image foundation model," the company's announcement reads. "While our messaging experience is designed for more playful, back-and-forth interactions, you can now create free images on the web, too." Meta's Emu model uses a process called "quality-tuning" to compare the "aesthetic alignment" of comparable images, setting it apart from the competition, as *Ars* notes. Other than that, the tool is exactly what you'd expect. With a simple prompt, it can spit out four photorealistic images of skateboarding teddy bears or an elephant walking out of a fridge, which can then be shared on Instagram or Facebook — where, perhaps, they'll be [scraped by the next AI](). Earlier this year, Meta's president for global affairs Nick Clegg [told *Reuters*]() that the company has been crawling through Facebook and Instagram posts to train its Meta AI virtual assistant as well as its Emu image model. At the time, Clegg claimed that Meta was excluding private messages and posts, avoiding public datasets with a "heavy preponderance of personal information." Instead of immediately triggering a [massive outcry]() and [lawsuits]() over possible copyright infringement like Meta's competitors, the social media company can crawl its own datasets, which come courtesy of its users and its expansive terms of service. But relying on Instagram selfies and Facebook family albums comes with its own inherent risks, which may well come back to haunt the Mark Zuckerberg-led social giant. **More on Meta:** *[Facebook Has a Gigantic Pedophilia Problem]()* ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()