Instagram AI feature that lets users generate profile photos seen in development

Instagram may be working on a new artificial intelligence (AI) feature that will allow users to create profile photos. A new leak claims that the Meta-owned social media platform is testing a feature that will allow users to use AI models to create new profile photos using AI. Although not much is known about this feature yet, similar features are reportedly being developed for Facebook and WhatsApp. Meanwhile, Instagram head Adam Mosseri recently announced that automatic feed refreshing, which used to trigger when the app was opened after a certain period of time, has been abandoned by the service.

Instagram is developing AI profile picture generation feature

Developer Alessandro Paluzzi found evidence of the feature on the Instagram app, and shared details in a post on Threads. While updating his profile picture on Instagram he was able to find a new menu option that said, Create an AI profile pictureA screenshot of the menu was also shared by the developer.

While it’s hard to say how exactly this feature will work as it’s still in development, it will likely be powered by one of Meta’s Llama large language models (LLM). The feature can work in two ways – it can let users generate an AI image from scratch using text-based prompts or convert existing profile pictures into different styles using AI.

This won’t be the first AI feature to come to Instagram. The Meta-owned platform already offers access to its conversational chatbot Meta AI in the form of standalone chats as well as group chats. The company has also introduced an AI rewrite feature for DM messages, which allows users to rewrite and change the tone of messages being sent to another user.

Meanwhile, Meta recently announced that it is testing AI-powered facial recognition technology to detect scam ads on Facebook and Instagram. This feature will detect ads that fraudulently use public figures in their ads to lure users and block them. It also revealed its plan to use the technology to verify users through video selfies to help them regain access to their compromised accounts. Neither of these features are widely available at this time.