Instagram Chief Adam Mosseri: AI Floods Feeds, Polished Posts Die
Serge Bulaev
Instagram's boss Adam Mosseri says fancy, perfect pictures are over because AI-made posts are everywhere now. People now prefer real, unfiltered, and even messy photos, since they trust these more than polished ones. Instagram is working on ways to prove when media is real, like using special chips in cameras and clear labels for edits. More users are sharing simple, raw clips and pictures, making feeds look more human. In today's sea of fake and AI content, showing what's actually real is more important than ever.
In a statement sparking debate across the creator economy, Instagram Chief Adam Mosseri declared that polished feeds are dead, a direct result of AI content flooding the platform. His remarks, delivered in a late-2025 Threads post, frame Meta's urgent plan to preserve authenticity as synthetic media outpaces detection tools.
The Shift from Polished Perfection to Raw Reality
The era of perfectly square photos with flawless filters is over, according to Mosseri. He explained that generative AI now produces "synthetic everything," a trend he predicts will cause AI visuals to outnumber unedited photos within years, as noted in an Engadget report. In response, creators are embracing candid, lo-fi content. A 2025 study by We Are Social found that user-generated style posts earn 2.4x higher trust than glossy brand photography, making overly polished content look disposable.
The core issue is that generative AI has made flawless imagery cheap and common, stripping it of its value. As a result, audiences now gravitate toward raw, imperfect content because its candid nature serves as a visual cue for human creation in a sea of synthetic media.
Instagram's Strategy for Verifying "Real" Media
To combat the rising tide of AI, Mosseri outlined a three-part strategy focused on proving authenticity rather than chasing fakes:
- Fingerprinting Real Media: Using chip-level cryptographic signatures (C2PA standard) at the moment of capture to verify an image's origin.
- Expanding Transparency: Enhancing transparency badges to show viewers who created or edited a piece of media.
- Labeling AI Assistance: Offering creative tools that automatically label AI use within a post's edit history.
The first pillar is already being implemented. A Business Insider analysis confirms that new devices like Nikon's Z6III and Snapdragon 8 Gen3 phones include this hardware-level signing technology. Upcoming regulations like California's SB 942 will further accelerate this trend.
Why Raw Content Outperforms Polished Posts
Audience "AI fatigue" is driving a major reversal in taste. A 2025 trend survey from SociallyIn revealed that users share and save underproduced clips 28% more often than slick, studio-produced content. The algorithm is also adapting, prioritizing watch time and engagement over passive likes, which naturally boosts conversational, phone-shot videos. As Kara Redman of Backroom notes, "audiences can feel when something wasn't made by a real person."
The data clearly illustrates this change in user preference:
| Year | Avg engagement for polished posts | Avg engagement for candid posts |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 4.1% | 3.8% |
| 2024 | 3.6% | 4.3% |
| 2025 | 2.9% | 5.4% |
Can Cryptographic Signatures Defeat Deepfakes?
Security experts warn that cryptographic stamps are not foolproof, as they can break when an image is cropped, compressed, or filtered. To address this, companies like Adobe and Truepic are developing layered signatures that preserve the original file's hash before edits are made. This would allow platforms to display different badges for untouched media versus media that was signed and then edited.
Skeptics argue this approach unfairly burdens camera manufacturers while allowing low-quality AI "slop" to proliferate. Mosseri counters that labeling every fake is unfeasible at scale, making it more practical to verify what is provably real.
While the industry works toward a standard, the cultural shift is clear. The era of the ultra-curated grid is fading, replaced by content that looks and feels human - precisely because proving that humanity is now harder than ever.
Why did Adam Mosseri declare the polished Instagram feed "officially dead"?
In a late-2025 Threads carousel he wrote: "Flattering imagery is cheap to produce and boring to consume."
Mosseri says AI tools now let anyone clone perfect lighting, skin-smoothing and color-grading, so high-gloss posts no longer signal quality or status; they blend into an endless stream of synthetic sameness. The result is that users are skipping feeds and sharing blurry, lo-fi shots in DMs instead, because imperfection feels human.
How fast is AI content expected to overtake real photos on Instagram?
Mosseri predicts synthetic images and videos will outnumber authentic captures "within a couple of years."
Industry data show AI-labeled posts already dominate discovery pages in 2025, and platform detection is losing the arms race as generators become indistinguishable from cameras. The shift is speeding up as on-device AI cameras and one-click editing apps turn every Story into a potential deepfake.
What technical fix is Mosseri proposing to prove something is real?
He argues it will soon be "more practical to fingerprint real media than to label every fake."
The proposed method is cryptographic capture signatures - tiny hardware-sealed chips inside cameras and phones that sign each frame with a unique key at the moment of capture. Standards like C2PA Content Credentials are already shipping in Nikon Z6III and Snapdragon 8 Gen3 devices, letting Instagram verify origin instead of hunting for AI watermarks after the fact.
Why are candid, imperfect posts suddenly outperforming studio-quality content?
Audience fatigue with "AI slop" is driving a 180-degree taste reversal.
Marketing studies across 2025 show that:
- UGC-style blurry clips earn 2.4× more trust than polished brand ads
- Unscripted founder selfies drive 38% higher save rates than glossy campaign visuals
- Behind-the-scenes Stories are the fastest-growing format on both Instagram and TikTok
The logic: in a feed full of algorithmic perfection, a shaky handheld shot is the new authenticity badge.
What should creators and brands do today to stay relevant?
- Post raw moments: embrace natural light, casual framing and visible "flaws"
- Add human voice-over: even a quick "Hey, it's me" signals humanity to the algorithm
- Turn on Content Credentials if your device supports it - early adopters may get a reach boost once Instagram rolls out verification badges
- Balance scale: use AI for captions or rough cuts, but keep at least one unfiltered element (live cadence, on-screen typo, real laugh) so viewers feel a person behind the pixel
Bottom line: polished grids aren't just out of style - they're being de-ranked. In 2025 the winning feed looks more like a friend's camera roll than a magazine spread.