Meta's brand new AI image generation tool has sparked strong vigilance in the Hollywood industry

The influencer bloggers signed by Kyle Yermes's brokerage company rely entirely on real-life materials to build their Instagram personal image. However, this Tuesday, Meta, the parent company of Instagram, launched the AI drawing tool Muse Image, which can capture publicly available photos on the platform and generate new AI images based on the original images, completely shaking the influencers' control over their own portraits and images.

The vast majority of accounts on the platform automatically authorize the tool to use their publicly available photos by default, raising significant concerns throughout the entertainment industry.

Yermes, CEO of influencer management company G&B, stated: "A tool that has been proven to cause harm to rights requires users to actively opt-out of authorization, which is inherently unreasonable."

The leading talent agency CAA has formally protested to Meta on behalf of its artists.

CAA issued a statement saying: "We demand that Meta set portrait protection as the default rule for Muse Image AI, rather than requiring users to manually enable it as an exception; if users wish to authorize their portraits for AI creation, it should be a proactive choice made by the users. Artists have the right to independently decide whether and how their portraits and works are used, and the platform must obtain explicit permission and support users in customizing usage terms. Creators should be able to set usage restrictions and track material usage records to prevent unauthorized endorsements and commercial misuse."

"CAA recognizes the value of new technology, but it cannot come at the expense of personal rights and livelihoods. The future of the creative industry is built on respecting creators' ownership and autonomy."

The actors' union SAG-AFTRA also harshly criticized the rollout plan for the tool.

The union released a statement: "The use of such AI scraping of Instagram users' portraits is completely unacceptable without a prominent and clear opt-in mechanism. The platform has seriously misjudged public sentiment and ignored the obvious risks and rights infringement issues that come with this feature."

Further reading: The conflict between Hollywood and the AI industry continues to escalate, with OpenAI and major film companies engaged in fierce negotiations over copyright and portrait authorization.

Hollywood has long been wary of AI technology, as a large number of deepfake contents have emerged: generating false images and videos of celebrities without their permission, and fabricating their words and actions. Artists like Jamie Lee Curtis have been victims of AI-generated false product endorsement advertisements. Last year, OpenAI released the Sora 2 video generation model, allowing many users to generate images of deceased celebrities without the permission of their families, leading to a collective protest from Hollywood. Subsequently, OpenAI promised to provide more refined material control permissions for copyright holders.

Meta defined Muse Image in its official blog as "your creative assistant that understands you, easily transforming ideas into high-definition images, supporting downloads and sharing across the web." The promotional video showcased various usage scenarios: synthesizing friends into band photos, designing garage furniture concepts, etc. Meta stated that all AI-generated images come with watermarks, and users can report violations