One of the common complaints about Instagram and social media in general is that it breeds insecurity by giving the unrealistic impression that other people’s lives are better than they really are – only the best moments. And intensive appearance editing is known to contribute to body dissatisfaction, even when people know they’re not seeing the whole picture. Instagram is soon going to make this situation a little worse by allowing users to completely transform their videos using generative artificial intelligence.
In the teaser shared by Adam Mosseri, the Instagram CEO was able to completely transform his appearance: in one shot, he turned into a felt doll, and in another, he was transported from his office to a snowy mountain range in a fur coat. In another, he was able to place a hippo behind him, jumping around and looking at the camera.
“Many of you are creating the amazing content that makes Instagram what it is, and we want to give you more tools to help bring your ideas to life,” Mosseri said. “You should be able to do whatever you want with your videos. You should be able to change your clothes or change the context you’re sitting in… Anything 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 OpenAI and Google DeepMind unveiled their own video generation models. By making these tools available on Instagram, Meta is demonstrating how generative AI can have direct applications in its suite of apps. CEO Mark Zuckerberg has stated that he wants to infuse the company’s full suite of apps with artificial intelligence, including through content in the feed that will be tailored to each user’s interests.
Of course, while early demonstrations of video generation models have been promising, they are not perfect. OpenAI’s Sora demonstrated many of the issues one would expect, such as objects disappearing and changing facial appearance in just a few seconds. Mosseri only showed one-second demos of Movie Gen AI, so while they look pretty impressive, we’ll have to see if their quality holds up in longer clips.
There are definitely some interesting ways to use generative AI on Instagram for fun and entertaining purposes. The question is whether these uses outweigh the negative consequences. Mental health concerns aside, AI has already filled Facebook’s feed with fake images that older or more gullible users tend to believe are real, and it’s too early to tell what damage this could ultimately do.
