Posts

Instagram cracks down on AI accounts pretending to be human

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“AI creator” accounts like Aitana Lopez will get a new “AI-generated profile” label. | Image: Aitana Lopez Instagram is finally taking steps to address the rise of fake AI-influencer accounts that have gotten harder to spot . It's also renaming the "AI creator" label to "AI-generated profile" to make it clear when a profile features an AI-generated person that's not a real human being. "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," said Instagram in a blog post . "They want to know when a profile features an AI-generated person." To that end, Instagram will be hunting down accounts that don't self-label their AI-generated profiles, and penalize them by limi … Read the full story at The Verge. * This article was originally published here

All the ways Instagram and Facebook are changing for teens

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Meta just agreed to make sweeping changes for teens as part of a child safety settlement reached with attorneys general across the US. Under the agreement , Meta must apply new safeguards across Instagram and Facebook that will change how teens interact with the social media platforms, as well as restrict their use during certain times. The settlement stems from a nationwide lawsuit alleging Meta, Google, TikTok, and Snap failed to protect children and made their platforms "addictive" by design. A group of 51 US states and territories signed the agreement, including New York, New Jersey, California, Nevada, South Carolina, Washington, Illino … Read the full story at The Verge. * This article was originally published here

Instagram’s ‘First Draft’ trims your Reels clips for you

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Instagram is launching a new Reels-editing feature that automatically trims your video clips to focus on the highlights. The feature, called First Draft, is rolling out to Instagram's iPhone app and provides a "starting point" that you can build upon with other edits, according to an announcement on Tuesday . An example shared by Instagram shows a user selecting multiple clips for a reel and then tapping the "First Draft" button. From there, Instagram analyzes the clips - each of which is more than a minute long - before trimming them down to eliminate pauses and showcase the most important parts. Instagram then combines the snippets into a … Read the full story at The Verge. * This article was originally published here

Robin Williams’ Instagram account brought back to fight ‘AI abuse’

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Robin Williams' children are taking over their father's Instagram account after his daughter spoke out against the use of his AI likeness, as reported earlier by The Wrap . In a post on Tuesday , Zak, Zelda, and Cody Williams write that they want the late actor's Instagram profile to be a "safe, trusted place where the stories, photos, videos, and memories shared reflect his legacy with authenticity, warmth, and care." A story posted to Zelda Williams' own Instagram account expands on the decision to bring back her father's profile, saying that it's meant to help combat "rampant AI abuse," according to The Wrap : I'm sorry if anyone found Da … Read the full story at The Verge. * This article was originally published here

Mark Zuckerberg has an Instagzam

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Instagram's wordmark is iconic. Well, was iconic. Apparently Instagram thought it looked old, so the company rolled out a new one this week. It doesn't look like the old Instagram wordmark. It doesn't even look like it spells Instagram anymore. And we cannot figure out why Instagram decided to do this. On this episode of The Vergecast , David and Nilay start by discussing the new logo, the executive urge to redesign everything all the time, and whether new is always better. After that, they get into the other big Meta release of the week: Mark Zuckerberg's many-thousand-word missive on the future of AI. There are a lot of ideas and proposals … Read the full story at The Verge. * This article was originally published here

This is Instagram’s new logo

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It’s certainly… different. | Image: Meta Instagram has unveiled a new wordmark, moving away from the recognizable cursive typeface it's used over the last decade. The updated wordmark is a strange mix of half-cursive, half-print that's somehow less legible than its predecessor. Like, that totally says "Instagzam," right? "The wordmark at the top of the app hasn't changed in 10 years, so it was time for a refresh," Instagram head Adam Mosseri announced on his account . "Cleaner and more modern, with references to the original and the simplicity and craft that's always made it Instagram." Mosseri is seemingly aware that this will be a controversial change, because he also posted it … Read the full story at The Verge. * This article was originally published here

The vertical video takeover is here

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This is The Stepback , a weekly newsletter breaking down one essential story from the tech world. For more on all things vertical video, follow David Pierce . The Stepback arrives in our subscribers' inboxes on Sunday at 8AM ET. Opt in for The Stepback here . How it started For a while, every social and media platform had its own identity. YouTube was for clips of TV shows and movies, and the home of so many members of a burgeoning creator community. Instagram was mostly pictures. Netflix was trying to be the on-demand HBO. Facebook was about friends. Twitter was about news. Snapchat was a messaging app. All these apps did have one important … Read the full story at The Verge. * This article was originally published here

Instagram will let users endlessly swap the audio on old posts

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There's a symbiotic - and sometimes frustrating - relationship between social media sites and the creators that depend on them. Platforms need influencers' and creators' content to keep consumers on their apps; the creators, in turn, need to be able to reach those audiences to justify creating their content in the first place. Creators want a seamless way to make and disseminate their content while being able to make money; audiences want a bottomless feed of entertaining things to look at. And platforms need to keep both parties relatively happy. Over the last few months, Instagram has added a slew of features that are helpful for creator … Read the full story at The Verge. * This article was originally published here

Instagram and Facebook will likely require a redesign after EU rules they’re ‘addictive’

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Meta is in breach of the EU's Digital Services Act (DSA), a preliminary investigation has found, over the "addictive" design of Instagram and Facebook. It's likely to be forced to redesign both apps and could face a fine of up to $12 billion. The European Commission said Meta "did not adequately assess the risks of its addictive design on the physical and mental wellbeing of users, including minors and vulnerable adults." It singled out features like personalized recommendations, autoplay, and infinite scroll, arguing that they "fuel the user's urge to keep scrolling and shift the brain into 'autopilot mode.'" The report also criticizes th … Read the full story at The Verge. * This article was originally published here

Instagram’s Adam Mosseri: If you don’t like AI, ‘then you shouldn’t have it in your feed’

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Though Instagram head Adam Mosseri doesn't want to filter out AI content on the platform, he argues that you "shouldn't have it in your feed" if you don't like it. "I don't think we should filter out AI content," Mosseri said during an interview on Lenny Rachitsky's podcast . "I think we should let you know if content is AI content or not." At the same time, Mosseri seems to be drawing a distinction between content-based sorting and banning AI from the platform entirely. In fact, he believes people who love AI content "should be able to have a feed that's just AI town." Instagram, like many other platforms, including TikTok, YouTube, and Fac … Read the full story at The Verge. * This article was originally published here

Meta turns off the Instagram feature that let users make AI deepfakes of public accounts

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Following significant backlash, Meta is turning off the feature it announced this week that let users generate AI images based on content from public Instagram accounts just by tagging them. The feature, as originally set up, meant that content from any public Instagram account could be used in AI creations without the account owner's permission. "Earlier this week, we announced that one way for people to generate images in Meta AI is by @-mentioning public Instagram accounts that they want to reference," Meta says in an update to a blog post about its new Muse Image AI model. "Our intent was to provide a useful creative tool and to give pe … Read the full story at The Verge. * This article was originally published here

Meta’s new Muse Image model can pull other Instagram users into AI photos

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Meta is launching the first AI image generation model made by its Superintelligence Labs division. The Muse Image model now powers the image-making tools across the Meta AI app, Instagram, and WhatsApp, and it's coming soon to Facebook and Messenger, according to an announcement on Tuesday . It's part of the growing Muse family of AI models that replace Meta's Llama lineup. Alexandr Wang, who Meta hired to head up its Superintelligence Labs last year, says on Threads that Muse Image is "agentic," meaning it works with its Muse Spark large language model "to reason through your prompt, search the web, and plan before it generates." Meta is al … Read the full story at The Verge. * This article was originally published here

Instagram wants to monopolize your attention

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This week, Instagram launched a series of new features for its smart TV app that are all designed to get people to spend more time on the platform through the biggest screens in their homes. In addition to vertical Reels , Instagram for TV - which is currently available for Amazon Fire TV, Google TV, and Samsung Smart TVs - users can now watch disappearing Stories and horizontal videos with aspect ratios similar to what you typically see on YouTube. And soon, Instagram will make a big push for longform, episodic content and TV-focused "live creator experiences." This foray into the TV space feels very different from the Meta-owned company's … Read the full story at The Verge. * This article was originally published here

Hackers likely hijacked over 20,000 Instagram accounts with Meta’s AI chatbot

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Hackers likely took over 20,225 Instagram accounts using Meta's AI support chatbot, the company confirmed in a notice filed with the state of Maine . In the notice, spotted earlier by Bleeping Computer , Meta blames a "bug" for the exploit that allowed attackers to hijack accounts without two-factor authentication simply by asking the chatbot for a password reset: The tool itself worked properly and functioned as intended; however due to a bug in a separate code path, the system did not properly verify that the email address provided by the individual requesting a password reset matched the email address associated with that user's Instagram … Read the full story at The Verge. * This article was originally published here

You can just tell the Instagram algorithm what you want now

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Instagram is going to let you tweak what its algorithm shows you on your main feed. With the Your Algorithm feature, "you can now see the topics we think you're interested in, and change them, across all the major parts of Instagram," according to Instagram boss Adam Mosseri . Right now, the feature will only surface topics, but Instagram is working on "supporting requests for people, different moods or vibes, content types, and more." The company has been slowly giving users more agency over some algorithms on Instagram, having already launched the Your Algorithm feature for your Reels feed and the Explore page . With Wednesday's announcemen … Read the full story at The Verge. * This article was originally published here

Meta will use your activity on other websites to personalize your feeds

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Meta is planning to use the data shared by other businesses to personalize your feed and its AI responses. In a blog post on Tuesday , Meta explains that it already uses your off-platform activity, like the games you play or your purchases on other websites, to serve you ads. But now it's expanding the scope of the content it personalizes across Facebook and Instagram. For example, Meta says if you bought a tent online recently, you might see camping-related videos in your Reels feed. "We aren't collecting any new data as part of this update," the blog post says. "This is about using information that businesses already send to us to further … Read the full story at The Verge. * This article was originally published here

Instagram is finally letting everyone reorganize their profile grid

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Nearly a year after it was announced , Instagram says it's delivering the ability to rearrange the posts in your profile grid. It had been available to some people in test groups, but as of June 8th, it's rolling out widely via the Android and iPhone mobile apps. Until now, the posts on your Instagram profile have been locked in chronological order beyond the ability to pin three posts at the top, but once the feature is live on your account, you can long-press and drag posts freely, no matter how old they are. Any posts that are pinned will remain at the top. View this post on Instagram Instagram boss Adam Mosseri a … Read the full story at The Verge. * This article was originally published here

Facebook launches a ‘Plus’ subscription that gives you extra features

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After announcing tests of premium subscriptions for Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp earlier this year, TechCrunch and Bloomberg report that Meta is launching a global rollout over the next few weeks and is also starting to test subscriptions for Meta AI. With the new offerings, Meta joins many other tech companies in changing up its subscription plans to bring in new revenues following substantial AI investments - Google, for example, recently lowered the price of its most expensive subscription and threw in YouTube Premium. Instagram Plus and Facebook Plus will cost $3.99 per month, while WhatsApp Plus will cost $2.99 per month. Instagram Pl … Read the full story at The Verge. * This article was originally published here

Instagram hits the copy button again with new disappearing Instants photos

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Instagram is once again cribbing from competitors like Snapchat and BeReal with a new photo-sharing format it calls "Instants," which are ephemeral photos that you can't edit and that you can only share with your close friends or followers that follow you back. Instants are available globally beginning on Wednesday as a feature in the inbox in the Instagram app and as a separate app that's now in testing in select countries. To access Instants from the Instagram app, go to your DM inbox and look in the bottom-right corner for an icon or a stack of photos. After you post a photo, your friends can emoji react to it and send a reply to your DM … Read the full story at The Verge. * This article was originally published here

Meta will tell parents when their teens add new interests to their Instagram algorithm

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Starting Tuesday, parents can get more details about what their teens are up to on Instagram. Meta is adding a feature to its Teen Accounts that shows parents the "general topics their teens engage with," like "basketball" or "fashion." Meta also says it will soon start notifying parents when their teen adds a new interest to their algorithm. In December, Meta announced its "Your Algorithm" feature, which lets users choose topics they want to see more or less of in Instagram. Meta noted in its Tuesday blog post that users with Teen Accounts are already limited in what topics they can add to their algorithm - content shown to users with teen … Read the full story at The Verge. * This article was originally published here