Meta unveiled Muse Image on July 7, 2026, the first image-generation model from Meta Superintelligence Labs, led by Alexandr Wang. The tool, internally code-named Mango, is free via the Meta AI app, Instagram Stories and WhatsApp, with paid plans for heavier use.
Muse Image interprets complex multi-step prompts — multiple objects, camera angles, lighting, artistic styles and spatial relationships — and can reason through a request before generating, planning layouts and blending photos. Meta claims it beats Google Nano Banana 2 on several benchmarks while trailing OpenAI's latest GPT Image model on overall quality.
The launch quickly drew criticism: a feature lets users tag a public Instagram account and generate new AI images using that person's real photos without their explicit consent. Meta will not notify people when their images are used this way — turning it off requires an opt-out rather than the feature being opt-in.