Meta’s Muse Image AI Tool—Here’s How To Opt Out

Meta has activated a new AI tool called Muse Image that instantly generates images from your Instagram profile pictures — unless you navigate through several settings to opt out. The feature, rolling out globally this week, raises fresh privacy concerns about how social media platforms train and deploy generative AI on personal data without explicit user consent.

Meta launched Muse Image, an AI-powered tool that uses Instagram profile photos to create new images. The feature was quietly enabled for millions of users in July 2026, requiring no action to begin processing profile pictures for AI training. Users must manually opt out by visiting Instagram's privacy settings and toggling off a new 'Muse Image' option under Data Sharing.

The rollout follows Meta's broader push into generative AI, including previous tools like Imagine and AI-generated stickers. Muse Image is the first to directly mine user profile photos — the most public and identifiable images on the platform. Privacy advocates have criticised the default opt-in approach, arguing that profile pictures are often used as avatars and may include children or other individuals who didn't consent.

According to Meta's support page, the tool 'uses your profile picture and public data to train models that generate creative images.' Facebook's parent company states it does not use private messages or Stories content. However, any Instagram profile picture set to public — the default for most accounts — becomes training data unless the user actively opts out.

The opt-out process is buried: Settings > Privacy > Data Sharing > Muse Image > toggle off 'Allow use of my profile picture for AI image generation.' Meta does not send a notification when the tool is enabled or when changes are made. The EFF has warned that users may not realise their data is being used until they see generated images that resemble their profile photos.

Industry observers say Muse Image is a strategic move to compete with OpenAI's DALL-E, Midjourney, and Google's Imagen. By leveraging its massive user base and already-uploaded images, Meta can train models at a fraction of the cost — but risks eroding trust after years of privacy scandals, including Cambridge Analytica and the 2023 Instagram data breach.

Going forward, Meta plans to expand Muse Image to cover all public Instagram photos and eventually Facebook profile pictures. Users should monitor their settings and consider switching profile pictures to non-face images or making accounts private if they wish to avoid AI training. The EU's Digital Services Act and upcoming AI Act may force Meta to switch to an opt-in model in Europe, but users elsewhere must act now.