By Rajwa Quasim
Instagram is tightening its rules around AI-generated profiles, introducing a clearer disclosure label for accounts that feature AI-generated people. It will also limit the reach of such accounts if they do not use the proper AI label.
Under the new policy, Instagram will replace its existing “AI creator” label with a new “AI-generated profile” tag. The company said the wording is intended to make it easier for users to understand when the person represented on a profile has been generated using artificial intelligence.
The move comes as AI-generated influencers and virtual personalities become increasingly common, while users have complained that they cannot easily identify — or may take significant time to realize — that a profile is AI-generated rather than operated by a human.
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The new change does not affect the use of AI as a creative tool. Instagram said creators who use AI to edit photographs, improve captions, generate backgrounds or make other creative changes will not need the new profile-level label.
The company further said accounts that do not use the “AI-generated profile” tag will have limited reach, affecting their ability to appear on recommendation surfaces and reducing their exposure to people who do not already follow the account.
For accounts that Instagram identifies as AI-generated but undisclosed, the platform will notify the creator and give them a chance to apply the label themselves. If creators believe Instagram has misidentified their account as an AI-generated profile, they can appeal. The platform acknowledged that its detection system will not always get the call right.
The company stated that “as generative AI becomes a bigger part of how people create, we’ve heard that people don’t like seeing a profile that seems human, only to find out later that the person featured is AI-generated. They want to know when a profile features an AI-generated person.”
The policy change follows several controversies involving AI profiles on the platform. Earlier this year, an investigation by Wired found that a network of AI-generated male influencers reportedly messaged users directly to drive sign-ups for a gay dating app called Goose.
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In another investigation, The New York Times revealed that hundreds of AI-generated doctors, healers and wellness figures were recommending supplements and making health claims across social media. The proliferation of AI-generated influencers offering medical-related advice has raised concerns about the potential for users to rely on unverified information for health decisions.
Meta, which owns Instagram, has also faced several controversies and hundreds of lawsuits. One class-action lawsuit alleges that the company harvested users’ data without their permission to train artificial intelligence models. The lawsuit was filed by a group of journalists, podcasters and audiobook narrators.
Thousands of families, school districts and other plaintiffs have also accused social media platforms of using features such as personalized recommendations, endless scrolling and notifications to encourage excessive use.
In a lawsuit filed by attorneys general from 29 states, the plaintiffs alleged that Meta designed its social media platforms in ways that encouraged young users to become addicted to them, while also violating other laws. Meta agreed to pay up to $18 billion to settle the case.