Instagram reportedly developing new AI features, including an AI-generated image detector
Social media has been slowly implementing generative AI into its models. However, it has primarily been focused on helping marketers and businesses create posts, as seen with LinkedIn and Meta.
Leaked screenshots shared by app researcher Alessandro Paluzzi on Twitter suggest that Meta is taking a different approach with Instagram and using AI to develop several features that would directly impact user experience on the app.
Instagram is working on labels that help users distinguish between AI-generated and real photos, a feature that could have a significant impact on the user experience, as well as help curb misinformation.
Also: DeepMind's RT-2 makes robot control a matter of AI chat
The feature would help ease users' concerns about the negative impacts of generative AI and discerning what is real or generated. (It could also help avoid another Pope Francis wearing a puffer jacket moment.)
#Instagram is working to label the contents created or modified by #AI in order to be identified more easily 👀 pic.twitter.com/bHvvYuDpQr
— Alessandro Paluzzi (@alex193a) July 30, 2023
Another feature Paluzzi shared on Twitter was direct message summaries, which could be especially useful for influencers and content creators who get bombarded with brand messages.
#Instagram is working on a new feature for Direct messages: Message Summary 👀
— Alessandro Paluzzi (@alex193a) July 30, 2023
This new tool will likely be powered by #Meta #AI pic.twitter.com/j2lJhfFCBg
Instagram is also harnessing generative AI to make photo editing and getting the perfect picture easier.
One tool, called Restyle, would let users transform their images into any visual style they prompt. Another tool, AI brush, could be used to "add or replace specific parts of your image," per the screenshot shared.
#Instagram keeps working on the #AI tools for the Story editor 👀
— Alessandro Paluzzi (@alex193a) July 29, 2023
AI Brush: add or replace specific parts of your image
Restyle: Reimagine this image by applying any visual style you can describe pic.twitter.com/oeRUwMVwdz
The AI Brush tools would be similar to Samsung's Object Eraser feature or Google Pixel's Magic Eraser, which make it simple to remove unwanted objects from photos.
Also: How researchers broke ChatGPT and what it could mean for future AI development
With a growing influencer economy and dependency on social media, getting the perfect picture is more important than ever, and these tools help users achieve that in post-editing.
As previously covered by ZDNET, there have been reports of Instagram implementing its own AI chatbot, similar to Snapchat's My AI.
When these features will be available to the public remains unknown; however, Meta has been quickly adding to its generative AI tool arsenal, and we can expect these to be developed and deployed fairly quickly too.