Instagram tightens AI profile rules, targets undisclosed virtual personas

Instagram continues to tighten its rules around AI-generated profiles, replacing its existing “AI creator” label with a new “AI-generated profile” tag and limiting the reach of accounts that feature AI-generated people but do not disclose it. The move focuses on making it clearer to users when they are interacting with a profile built around an AI-generated person rather than a real individual.

Instagram changes ‘AI creator’ label: What’s it

Under the new system, Instagram is renaming its existing “AI creator” label to “AI-generated profile”. The company said the new wording is intended to make the disclosure easier to understand and indicate that the person featured on the profile was generated or substantially created using AI.

The change is focused on the identity represented by a profile, rather than simply whether AI was used during content creation.

This means a real person who uses AI tools as part of their creative process does not automatically need the new profile label. Instagram said the label is not intended for creators who use AI to edit photographs, improve captions, create graphics or make other creative changes to their content.

The more significant part of the update is how Instagram will treat profiles that feature AI-generated people without the required disclosure.

Instagram said it will limit the reach of such profiles. This can affect their ability to appear in recommendation surfaces, reducing their exposure to people who do not already follow the account.

The platform, however, is not penalising an account simply because it features an AI-generated person. Profiles that properly use the new label will not face a reach penalty solely because their featured person is AI-generated.

This effectively creates a distinction between AI-generated profiles that disclose their identity and those that present themselves as human without disclosure. Instagram said the update is based partly on feedback from users who are uncomfortable with profiles that appear to represent real people but are later revealed to be entirely AI-generated.

The issue becomes more significant as generative AI makes it increasingly easy to create realistic-looking people, lifestyle influencers and personalities that can interact with audiences like conventional social media creators.

What happens to existing AI creators

Accounts that already use Instagram’s “AI creator” label will transition to the new terminology. Creators will also have an opportunity to review whether the new “AI-generated profile” label still accurately describes their account and remove it if it no longer applies.

For profiles that Instagram identifies as AI-generated but that have not disclosed it, the platform will notify the creator and provide an option to add the label.

AI content is not the same as an AI profile

The distinction between AI-generated content and an AI-generated profile is central to the change. A human creator can use generative AI to edit an image, generate a background, improve a caption or create other elements of a post without turning their entire identity into an AI-generated persona. Such use does not by itself require the new profile label.

The new label instead addresses cases where the person users see on the profile is itself generated or substantially created by AI. Instagram’s existing AI disclosure system can continue to identify individual pieces of content created or edited using AI, while the new profile label provides information at the account level.