Another AI software shut down in the bloom of youth.
There seems to be an ongoing trend of newly developed AI models or AI features being shut down before they can really live a life of their own.
The greatest example was when Anthropic’s Claude Fable 5 was shut down only days after it was released to the public due to national security concerns from the US government.
During those few days when the world got to witness the construct, it was highly regarded as the most capable public AI model ever released.
Since then, the model has been re-released, but under tighter restrictions.
Now social media giant Meta is going through its own AI crisis with its recent Muse Image AI feature and subsequent shutdown.
Dropped last Tuesday, the new feature allowed users to edit generated images using photo inputs and sketches, which was implemented into Meta’s pre-existing Meta AI chatbot.
The main issue arose when it was found that the feature was an automatic opt-in for users, gathering information from their very own public images without consent.
The privacy concerns continued to sweep social media once backlash was aired by actors and unions.
One of the first to criticise the new feature was Hannah Einbinder, who revealed the feature was ‘turned on automatically’ and strongly urged users to turn it off.
Even SAG-AFTRA, an actors’ and media professionals’ union, stepped in to condemn the feature as ‘unacceptable’ and an ‘utter miscalculation of public sentiment’.
Consequently, Meta announced it would be shutting down the feature, stating: “Our intent was to provide a useful creative tool and to give people control over whether their public content could be referenced in this way. We’ve heard the feedback that this feature missed the mark, so it’s no longer available.”
It’s unclear whether the feature will be re-released under tighter restrictions or if Meta has learned its lesson about adding updates without consent.
The fine print may have been too fine this time.
