With the winding up of 2025, Instagram’s head, Adam Mosseri, took to social media and made the alarming post that states, “AI is changing photography fast, and honestly, it’s getting tough to tell what’s real and what’s not”. In the post, Mosseri pointed out that AI-generated photos have become so convincing that most people can’t spot the difference.
As the new year 2026 kicked off, Mosseri did not sugarcoat it. He directly said, “Authenticity is becoming infinitely reproducible,” and soon, even those raw, natural-looking photos might just be AI-generated fakes.
He raised this as a big problem, which is not just bound with Instagram but for anyone who is scrolling through social media trying to figure out what’s actually real.
So why is it getting harder to trust what we see?
Right now, a lot of creators are posting unpolished, imperfect photos to look more genuine. The thing is, AI has quickly figured out how to copy that messy, real-life vibe. Suddenly, even the rough-around-the-edges look doesn’t guarantee anything’s legit.
Mosseri said it’s time for people to pay less attention to what’s in the photo and more to who’s posting it. Still, he admitted this shift won’t happen overnight—people naturally want to trust their own eyes.
He did not stop there.
CNET reported that Mosseri took a shot at camera companies, blaming them for pushing features that make every shot look glossy and fake. He said these tools strip away the excitement and make everything look the same. Instead, he floated the idea that future cameras could stamp each photo with a cryptographic signature the moment you take it. That way, you’d know if an image is the real deal or an AI creation.
Instagram’s been rolling out its own AI features, but, like everyone else, it’s struggling to keep human-made content from getting buried under a flood of AI images. With tools like OpenAI’s Sora and Google’s image generators in the mix, the problem’s only growing.
Mosseri said Instagram needs to move fast. Here’s what they’re doing:
- Clearly labelling anything AI-generated
- Giving a boost to original content in their rankings
- Building tools to help real creators stand out against AI
- Teaming up with device makers to confirm a photo’s authenticity right when it’s taken
Wrapping up, Mosseri stressed that Instagram’s biggest job now is to help users spot “credibility signals” so they know who—and what—to trust.
He knows it will not be comfortable adapting to this new world packed with AI content, but there’s no turning back.
“Instagram’s going to have to change in a lot of ways—and do it fast,” he said.