One common complaint about Instagram, and social media in general, is that it breeds insecurity by presenting an unrealistic impression of other people’s lives as being better than they really are—the best moments only. And heavy editing of physical appearances is known to contribute to body dissatisfaction even when people know what they are seeing is not the full picture. Instagram is soon going to make that situation somewhat worse by allowing users to completely transform their videos using generative AI.
In a teaser shared by Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram was able to completely transform his appearance, in one shot turning himself into a felt puppet, and in another transporting Mosseri from his office to a snowy mountain range with a furry coat. In another, he was able to place a hippo behind him that jumped around and looked into the camera.
“A lot of you make amazing content that makes Instagram what it is, and we want to give you more tools to help realize your ideas,” said Mosseri. “You should be able to do anything you want with your videos. You should be able to change your outfit or change the context in which you’re sitting… Whatever you can think of.”
The new feature, which will be available sometime in 2025, is powered by Meta’s Movie Gen AI model. The announcement comes shortly after both OpenAI and Google DeepMind unveiled their own video generation models. By making these tools available on Instagram, Meta is showing off how generative AI can have immediate applications within its suite of apps. CEO Mark Zuckerberg has said he wants to infuse the company’s full suite of apps with AI, including through content in the feed that is tailored specifically to each user’s interests.
Of course, while early demos of video generation models have been promising, they are not perfect. OpenAI’s Sora has presented a lot of issues that you might expect, like objects disappearing and faces changing in appearance after only a few seconds. Mosseri only showed off one-second demonstrations of Movie Gen AI, so although they look quite impressive, we will have to see if they hold up their quality in longer clips.
There are certainly some interesting ways generative AI within Instagram could be used in fun and entertaining ways. The question is whether those outweigh the negatives. Putting mental health concerns aside, AI has already filled Facebook feeds with fake imagery that older or more credulous users are susceptible to believing is real, and it is too early to say what harm that will ultimately cause.
Read the full article here
