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In a bizarre incident, the Instagram users worldwide experienced a sudden glitch where their friends’ names were replaced by AI Labels, causing extreme difficulties in distinguishing between the actual friends and AI.
The issue originally arose on Reddit, when users uploaded screenshots indicating that their entire list of contacts on Instagram had been renamed as “AI.”
Profile images were still intact, but this “AI“ labeling made it more difficult to use. Simple features like sending messages and videos were impacted, making users manually copy and paste links.
One of the users on Reddit posted, “I can‘t locate any of my friends. They‘re all just AI. This is outrageous.” Others were doing the same, terming the app “unusable.”
The glitch occurred in conjunction with a seemingly unrelated in-app notification: “AI chats are not yet available to everyone.”
This prompted speculation that Meta, the parent company of Instagram, might be planning to roll out additional AI capabilities and had triggered the error as part of internal testing.
However, Meta didn’t post an official statement describing the cause of the incident or verifying whether it was connected to an AI update or internal glitch.
It is not the first time that Instagram‘s AI features have raised eyebrows and caused difficulties for users. Last June, users complained of their accounts being randomly banned, prompting concerns about the platform‘s use of automated moderation systems.
Critics say that AI is being used without adequate transparency or human input. Digital rights organizations now want Meta to undertake more rigorous testing and public discourse before new AI-based features are launched.
Although several users have reported restoring normal contact lists later in the day, others indicated the issue was still ongoing.
