Instagram Chief Adam Mosseri Warns Public Anger Over AI Will Keep Growing

Instagram head Adam Mosseri has acknowledged that a large number of people dislike artificial intelligence, and that the sentiment extends well beyond young people and creative workers. He made the remarks in an interview on the Colin and Samir podcast, where he was discussing Instagram's launch of widescreen and long-form video.

Asked about the trend of college students booing tech executives at graduation ceremonies, Mosseri said he sees growing "anxiety and more frustration and more anger about AI," with the feeling especially strong in creative industries. He did not expect it to ease. "It's not only getting worse, it's going to continue to get worse," he said, adding that he expects more frustration and anger over the next couple of years, "some of it founded, some of it unfounded." He said that would make life difficult for many people, not only those working in the industry.

Mosseri also addressed how Instagram treats AI-made content. He claimed the platform does not rank AI creators differently from others, but he questioned how well its systems sort the material. "There's a lot of great AI content out there, there's also a lot of AI slop," he said. "Do we rank AI content as well as we rank non-AI content? Probably not." He added that he believes the word "slop" is used "too liberally." He had raised the subject before in a New Year's slideshow post.

The company has taken several steps on the issue this year. Earlier in 2026 it launched a label for AI accounts, and in August it began cracking down on AI-generated profiles. Misleading material such as celebrity deepfakes remains a problem on the platform.

Earlier this month, Mosseri said Instagram is "actively working out what to do" about AI fakes. At the same time, he said, "I don't think it's practical for us to try and ban AI content from the platform." On the podcast, he said Instagram is now starting to require AI accounts to label themselves "because we think it's important that people know if what they're looking at is real or not real."

Mosseri listed a range of worries he hears from the public and from creators. They include ownership of content and the training of AI models on creators' work, as well as safety. Many people also fear job displacement, whether they are content creators, engineers or mathematicians.

He said the root of the unease, however, is something more basic. When you have a real heart-to-heart with someone, he said, it comes down to "a fear of being left behind in some way."