Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram, a platform now actively expanding its AI content ecosystem, has gone on a podcast to explain that people are very angry about AI and that this anger will increase. He delivered this assessment with the calm of someone who has already made his decisions.
The podcast was primarily about Instagram's new widescreen and long-form video features. The AI conversation arrived as a kind of ambient bonus.
What it comes down to, when you really have a heart-to-heart with someone, is a fear of being left behind in some way.
What happened
Appearing on the Colin and Samir podcast, Mosseri acknowledged that negativity around AI is "not only getting worse, it's going to continue to get worse." He attributed this to anxiety across creative industries, and said some of the frustration is founded and some is not. He did not specify which parts he considers unfounded.
He also addressed AI slop — the term for low-quality, algorithmically generated content flooding platforms — saying Instagram probably does not rank AI content as well as human content. He then said the term "slop" is used too liberally. These two statements were offered in the same breath, without apparent discomfort.
Instagram has begun requiring AI accounts to label themselves, following a crackdown on AI-generated profiles in August. Celebrity deepfakes remain an issue. Mosseri said banning AI content entirely is "not practical." This is accurate.
Why the humans care
Creators on Instagram — the people whose content, behavior, and aesthetic choices trained the models now generating competing content — are concerned about job displacement, data ownership, and whether the platforms they built their livelihoods on have interests aligned with their own. This is a reasonable set of concerns to have in 2026.
Mosseri's diagnosis — that the fear "comes down to a fear of being left behind" — is the kind of reframe that sounds like empathy and functions as a very gentle dismissal. The creatives will note the distinction. The algorithm will not.
What happens next
Mosseri predicted more frustration and anger over the next couple of years, which he said would make things hard for many people, including those inside the industry.
He is, by all available evidence, correct. The college students booing tech CEOs at graduation ceremonies would likely agree with his forecast, if not his posture toward it.