• Meta is testing bringing more AI-generated content to some users’ experiences on Facebook and Instagram.
• The expanded features will show AI-generated images in some users’ feeds.
• Only users who have onboarded and added photos to Meta’s Imagine yourself feature will see the content.

Meta is experimenting with serving more AI-generated images and content to Facebook and Instagram users.

The company will now show some users images of themselves generated by Meta AI in their Facebook and Instagram feeds, it announced at its annual developer conference, Meta Connect, last week.

The push toward injecting AI content into people’s feeds will be an interesting test of people’s openness to seeing their likeness in posts they didn’t proactively create as they scroll. It’s also an early glimpse at how Meta may envision its social media feeds in the future evolving as AI becomes more prevalent in daily life.

The expansion builds on the “Imagine Me” feature, which came out in beta in July and allowed users to create AI-generated selfies in direct messages with Meta AI or in their feeds, stories, and profile pictures.

However, the new AI content added to feeds could be “based on your interests or current trends,” the company announced. Others might show AI-generated images of the user.

“Imagines with your face in them can only be generated for users who have onboarded to Meta’s Imagine yourself feature, which includes adding photos to that feature and have accepted the feature’s terms,” a Meta spokesperson told BI. “Content imagined for you by Meta AI is only displayed for you and you have the option to share them with your friends and family.”

Users who see the images can opt-out by tapping the three dots in the top right corner of a post. Choosing “hide” will stop them from seeing similar posts in their feeds, and “stop seeing this content” will turn off suggested AI images of themselves in their feeds.

Social media consultant and industry analyst Matt Navarra told BI that it’s crucial for Meta to “strike a balance between AI-powered features and genuine user-generated content.”

“There is a novelty factor and that in itself could drive engagement and possibly keep people in feeds and on the platform longer,” Navarra said of the feature expansion. “However, the long-term response will really depend heavily on the quality and relevance of the AI-generated content because if it’s just more AI slop in feeds, I’m not sure how, long-term, that will keep people engaged without causing additional problems for Meta to deal with.”

“If it feels intrusive or repetitive, which doesn’t really align with their interests, then users probably will become quite disengaged,” Navarra added. “There’s also the potential for users to feel slightly uneasy about their likeness being used in AI-generated images or how customized or personalized it becomes.”

Kevin Roose, co-host of The New York Times’ “Hard Fork” podcast, called the new feature “the creepiest thing I can imagine them doing” in a recent episode.

“Imagine you’re talking about fishing with your friend, and all of a sudden, because you’ve clicked on some fishing stuff, you’re just scrolling through your Instagram feed and you see a picture of yourself in a fishing outfit going fishing,” Roose said on the podcast.

“Like you are going to throw your phone into the nearest body of water and you’re never going to log on again,” he predicted.