The rapid rise of artificial intelligence generated images and videos is pushing Instagram to change faster than ever, according to platform head Adam Mosseri. The Meta owned app, long known for real photos and videos shared by creators and influencers, now faces a future where AI content could be almost impossible to tell apart from camera captured media.
In a recent post shared on December 31, Mosseri warned that the speed of change itself is the biggest threat. “The key risk Instagram faces is that, as the world changes more quickly, the platform fails to keep up,” he wrote. Looking ahead, he added, “Looking forward to 2026, one major shift: authenticity is becoming infinitely reproducible.”
AI image and video tools saw massive growth in 2025, with products like Google Nano Banana and OpenAI Sora driving viral trends and rapid adoption. Instagram has also joined this space through its Edits app. Despite this, Mosseri believes AI generated content could become a serious challenge for trust on the platform.
“For most of my life, I could safely assume photographs or videos were largely accurate captures of moments that happened. This is clearly no longer the case, and it’s going to take us years to adapt,” he said. He added that people will move from trusting what they see by default to starting with scepticism.
Mosseri acknowledged that identifying AI content may work in the short term but will become harder over time. He said camera makers may eventually cryptographically sign images at the time of capture to help verify real content.
He also noted that the traditional image of Instagram as a place for polished personal photos has faded. Most genuine moments are now shared privately through direct messages, often as blurry photos or shaky videos. Calling this shift a “raw aesthetic,” Mosseri said polished visuals are now “cheap to produce and boring to consume.”
As a result, originality and authenticity are becoming more valuable. “The bar is shifting from ‘can you create?’ to ‘can you make something that only you could create?’” he said.
To stay relevant, Mosseri said Instagram must move fast. “We need to build the best reactive tools. Label AI generated content and verify authentic content. Surface credibility signals about who’s posting. Continue to improve ranking for originality,” he added.
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