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The government will assess Meta’s new Muse AI image generator under the existing legal framework, IT Secretary S Krishnan said on Thursday, adding that the ministry will examine representations it receives.
The comment assumes significance as Meta’s launch of Muse Image, touted as its most powerful AI image generator and first media generation model developed by Superintelligence Labs, has drawn criticism and user concerns over data privacy, image scraping and consent.
”We will have to look at it with reference to the legal framework, and whether it is in accordance with the legal framework or not. We will examine the representations we receive,” Krishnan said on the sidelines of the CII GCC Business Summit.
It is pertinent to mention that there is a user outcry over a feature that allows people to create AI images by clawing photos from public Instagram accounts, with just a simple tag in the prompt.
Experts believe that since the feature is turned on automatically for public accounts, the ’opt-in-by-default approach’ raises some serious questions over consent, privacy and image-scraping, as unsuspecting users may come across their striking resemblance in random AI-generated images, even though they have not given any explicit permission to others.
After all, typically, an opt-out approach tends to benefit from user inertia rather than informed user choice, they said.
The risk of having an easy, everyday deepfake capability handy and accessible for millions, if not billions, of users, could make it tougher to instantly trust which images are real and which are AI-generated, leaving people more vulnerable digitally, despite certain watermark safeguards announced by Meta, industry watchers said.
Meta, however, asserts that users have control over how their content can be tagged for AI creation with an easy setting to turn this feature off at any time. Meta has updated the ’Settings’ on Instagram to clarify that when a user allows others to reuse their public content in features like remix, it also lets people create with their Instagram content using AI products at Meta. Users can opt out by toggling this reuse setting off.
Meta said Muse Image is its most advanced image generation model yet and that ”it follows instructions faithfully, edits with precision, composes from multiple references, and draws on Instagram for social context”.
According to Meta, Muse Image edits images with precision, changing exactly what the user asks for.
It can follow a variety of instructions, Meta said, sharing examples of how the tool can restore an image, clear up a blanket of fog in another to reveal a valley below, or support more whimsical prompts like changing the petals of a flower to a rainbow gradient.
Muse Image includes a content seal, an invisible watermarking system that Meta says will help people verify whether an image is AI-generated.
Images created by Muse Image in the Meta AI app and on meta.ai carry a hidden provenance signal that stays intact, even when cropped, compressed, resized, or screenshotted. The content seal will be extended to video soon.
Meta said it is previewing a detection tool that lets people check whether an image carries a Content Seal watermark, providing an initial way to help them better understand if an image was made with Meta AI.
Prachir Singh, senior analyst at Counterpoint Research, noted that Meta’s new Muse Image tool lets users type someone’s Instagram username into an AI prompt and generate fake pictures of that person, which are pulled from their public photos, without asking for permission first.
The feature is turned on automatically for public accounts, which means users are already included unless they go into their settings and manually turn it off, he added.
”This is a big change because it changes what having a public Instagram account means. It used to simply mean more people could see someone’s posts. Now, it also means strangers can use that person’s face to create new images they never agreed to – a risk that’s especially significant for influencers and creators who rely on public accounts for their work, but also for everyday users, since Meta has said it won’t notify people when this happens to them,” Singh said.
Legally, if a business uses one of these AI-generated images in an ad and it accidentally includes someone’s face, that business (and not Meta) is likely to face lawsuits or backlash, he further said.
”And more broadly, handing this kind of easy, everyday deepfake capability to billions of users could make it much harder to trust that photos are real, and much easier for people to be harassed or impersonated online,” Singh cautioned.
Prabhu Ram, Vice President – Industry Research Group at CyberMedia Research (CMR), said Meta’s move changes the meaning of a public profile in a significant way.
Until now, a public profile largely meant visibility and discoverability; with this, it can also become source material for AI-generated content built on a person’s likeness, he said.
”That shifts the risk from simply being seen online to being repurposed without clear consent or control. The fact that this is enabled by default makes it more problematic, because opt-out models typically benefit from user inertia rather than informed user choice,” he said.
The risks are especially high for creators and influencers, whose face and identity are not just personal attributes but part of their commercial value.
”If that likeness can be freely remixed, it raises the risks of impersonation, fake endorsements, reputational harm, and brand dilution, with real financial and legal consequences. As these capabilities begin to extend into automated ad tools, the liability question may not stop with the advertiser alone if platform design is seen to have enabled misuse at scale,” he further explained.
The comment assumes significance as Meta’s launch of Muse Image, touted as its most powerful AI image generator and first media generation model developed by Superintelligence Labs, has drawn criticism and user concerns over data privacy, image scraping and consent.
”We will have to look at it with reference to the legal framework, and whether it is in accordance with the legal framework or not. We will examine the representations we receive,” Krishnan said on the sidelines of the CII GCC Business Summit.
It is pertinent to mention that there is a user outcry over a feature that allows people to create AI images by clawing photos from public Instagram accounts, with just a simple tag in the prompt.
Experts believe that since the feature is turned on automatically for public accounts, the ’opt-in-by-default approach’ raises some serious questions over consent, privacy and image-scraping, as unsuspecting users may come across their striking resemblance in random AI-generated images, even though they have not given any explicit permission to others.
After all, typically, an opt-out approach tends to benefit from user inertia rather than informed user choice, they said.
The risk of having an easy, everyday deepfake capability handy and accessible for millions, if not billions, of users, could make it tougher to instantly trust which images are real and which are AI-generated, leaving people more vulnerable digitally, despite certain watermark safeguards announced by Meta, industry watchers said.
Meta, however, asserts that users have control over how their content can be tagged for AI creation with an easy setting to turn this feature off at any time. Meta has updated the ’Settings’ on Instagram to clarify that when a user allows others to reuse their public content in features like remix, it also lets people create with their Instagram content using AI products at Meta. Users can opt out by toggling this reuse setting off.
Meta said Muse Image is its most advanced image generation model yet and that ”it follows instructions faithfully, edits with precision, composes from multiple references, and draws on Instagram for social context”.
According to Meta, Muse Image edits images with precision, changing exactly what the user asks for.
It can follow a variety of instructions, Meta said, sharing examples of how the tool can restore an image, clear up a blanket of fog in another to reveal a valley below, or support more whimsical prompts like changing the petals of a flower to a rainbow gradient.
Muse Image includes a content seal, an invisible watermarking system that Meta says will help people verify whether an image is AI-generated.
Images created by Muse Image in the Meta AI app and on meta.ai carry a hidden provenance signal that stays intact, even when cropped, compressed, resized, or screenshotted. The content seal will be extended to video soon.
Meta said it is previewing a detection tool that lets people check whether an image carries a Content Seal watermark, providing an initial way to help them better understand if an image was made with Meta AI.
Prachir Singh, senior analyst at Counterpoint Research, noted that Meta’s new Muse Image tool lets users type someone’s Instagram username into an AI prompt and generate fake pictures of that person, which are pulled from their public photos, without asking for permission first.
The feature is turned on automatically for public accounts, which means users are already included unless they go into their settings and manually turn it off, he added.
”This is a big change because it changes what having a public Instagram account means. It used to simply mean more people could see someone’s posts. Now, it also means strangers can use that person’s face to create new images they never agreed to – a risk that’s especially significant for influencers and creators who rely on public accounts for their work, but also for everyday users, since Meta has said it won’t notify people when this happens to them,” Singh said.
Legally, if a business uses one of these AI-generated images in an ad and it accidentally includes someone’s face, that business (and not Meta) is likely to face lawsuits or backlash, he further said.
”And more broadly, handing this kind of easy, everyday deepfake capability to billions of users could make it much harder to trust that photos are real, and much easier for people to be harassed or impersonated online,” Singh cautioned.
Prabhu Ram, Vice President – Industry Research Group at CyberMedia Research (CMR), said Meta’s move changes the meaning of a public profile in a significant way.
Until now, a public profile largely meant visibility and discoverability; with this, it can also become source material for AI-generated content built on a person’s likeness, he said.
”That shifts the risk from simply being seen online to being repurposed without clear consent or control. The fact that this is enabled by default makes it more problematic, because opt-out models typically benefit from user inertia rather than informed user choice,” he said.
The risks are especially high for creators and influencers, whose face and identity are not just personal attributes but part of their commercial value.
”If that likeness can be freely remixed, it raises the risks of impersonation, fake endorsements, reputational harm, and brand dilution, with real financial and legal consequences. As these capabilities begin to extend into automated ad tools, the liability question may not stop with the advertiser alone if platform design is seen to have enabled misuse at scale,” he further explained.
