Meta on Wednesday previewed upcoming additions to its video-editing app Edits at an invite-only creator event in L.A., showing off features like a new AI assistant and a desktop version of the previously mobile-only app.

The company also announced other new tools will launch in the app today, such as a “Beta” tab for experiments and expanded audience insights.

Edits first arrived last year as a direct competitor to ByteDance’s CapCut. With the addition of the new and upcoming tools, Meta is looking to both retain and attract new users.

The upcoming AI assistant will help creators analyze their insights and brainstorm ideas for their content. The assistant will use their Instagram data, like their views and video-retention insights, to help them see what’s working and why. It will suggest video ideas based on performance and suggest making content with trending audio.

By integrating an AI assistant directly into Edits, Meta is aiming to keep creators engaged on Instagram as it continues to compete with TikTok and YouTube for creators’ attention. Additionally, by offering creators content ideas, Meta is encouraging more frequent posting, which could, in turn, boost user engagement. Direct access to an AI assistant also gets rid of the need for creators to turn to outside tools like ChatGPT when brainstorming content ideas and understanding performance.

Meta launched a similar AI assistant tool for creators on Facebook last week. It’s worth noting that YouTube and TikTok also offer tools to creators to help them brainstorm ideas. For instance, YouTube Studio features an Inspiration tab that uses AI to help creators generate video ideas, while TikTok offers creators an AI assistant that can brainstorm ideas and uncover trends.

The desktop version of Edits will give creators more precise control over the editing process as well as the ability to work on a larger screen, which can be helpful during more advanced editing workflows. The company says creators will be able to sync their workflows seamlessly between mobile and desktop devices.

The upcoming desktop version will also allow Edits to better compete with CapCut, which already offers a desktop version.

Among the new features launching today is a Beta tab, which will provide creators with early access to experimental features that are still in development and allow them to provide Meta with feedback. The rollout of the Beta tab indicates that Meta wants to better compete with CapCut and accelerate feature development based on what creators actually want and will use.

Creators will also now be able to see more detailed metrics like their audience demographic breakdown and the time of day their audience is the most engaged. The new metrics join the app’s existing analytics, which include data such as how long viewers watch a video, how many followers were gained from a specific video, where users stop watching a certain video, and more.

Additionally, creators can search specific topics within the app’s Inspiration feed to discover reels and templates other creators are making around a given trend or idea. They’ll also be able to create multiple versions of a single piece of content to test what performs best before publishing.

Although Instagram didn’t share specific numbers about how many users Edits has, the company says that content made with the app sees a 10% higher save rate and 2% higher reshare rate compared to content not made on Edits, and that more than half of people watching reels on Instagram are seeing Edits-created content every day. 

Edits is free to download on iOS and Android.

The AI assistant announced today is currently in testing with attendees of Thursday’s creator event, while the desktop version of Edits is “coming soon,” Meta says. The rest of the features are launching to everyone today.

Instagram has fixed a scary security flaw that allowed hackers to take over accounts using Meta’s own AI support chatbot. The issue came to light over the weekend, when multiple users on Reddit and X reported that their accounts had been compromised. 

Even my Instagram account got hacked

The password got changed without my knowledge and I was getting different password reset attempts throughout yesterday. And I got repeatedly logged out from the IG iOS app

Quite concerning https://t.co/F6wjKYrlBo

— Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) June 1, 2026

As reported by TechCrunch, security researcher Jane Wong was also among those affected. “The password got changed without my knowledge, and I was getting different password reset attempts throughout yesterday,” she said. “Quite concerning.”

How did the hack work?

A video posted on X showed the entire process, and it’s alarming in how simple it was. The hacker first used a VPN to spoof the location, bypassing Instagram’s automated account protections. Then, they opened a chat with Meta’s AI Support Assistant and simply asked the bot to add a new email address to the target’s account.

Instagram had an exploit that allowed you to use Meta AI to reset passwords to accounts with no MFA on them. The exploit was patched a short time ago.pic.twitter.com/PEUwLvmllj

— Dark Web Informer (@DarkWebInformer) June 1, 2026

Here’s where it gets wild. The chatbot sent a verification code to the hacker’s email, not the victim’s. The hacker shared the code back with the chatbot, which then offered a button to reset the password. That’s how easy it was to take over the account of anyone on Instagram. 

TechCrunch verified that the hacker’s public email mailbox did receive the verification code, confirming the attack worked exactly as shown.

Is your account at risk?

The scariest part of this attack is that the hacker never needed access to the victim’s real email address at any point. The entire process bypassed the actual account owner completely.

Instagram spokesperson Andy Stone confirmed on Monday that the issue has now been fixed. However, it remains unclear how many users had their accounts compromised before the patch. So, the good news is that you don’t have to worry about this issue anymore.

The state of AI in support

The rising prices of consumer electronics, the growing ease with which fraudsters can deceive people, and the challenges universities face as students use AI to cheat are just some examples of how AI has made our lives worse.

For me, the most annoying application of AI is in support chats. I recently ordered dinner, which was delayed. The AI support chat didn’t let me talk to a human for about two hours, repeatedly telling me that the food would arrive in the next 10 minutes. 

Before this was implemented, any query I had was resolved in minutes by a human customer service agent. Meta’s AI support chatbot is yet another example of how allowing AI in customer service is creating unnecessary stress for users.

Hackers hijacked Instagram accounts over the weekend by tricking Meta’s own AI-powered support chatbot into granting them access. The attack required no access to the victim’s email, no phishing link, and no malware. The hacker simply asked the chatbot to add a new email address to someone else’s account.

A video posted on X showed the step-by-step process. The hacker used a VPN to spoof the target’s presumed location, avoiding Instagram’s automated account protections. They then opened a chat with Meta AI Support Assistant and asked the bot to add a new email address to the target’s account.

The chatbot sent a verification code to the hacker’s email address. The hacker shared the code back with the chatbot. The bot then displayed a “Reset Password” button. The hacker entered a new password and took over the account.

At no point did the hacker need to access the legitimate email address linked to the victim’s Instagram account. TechCrunch verified that the hacker’s public email mailbox, displayed in the video, received the verification code. The attack exploited a fundamental flaw: the AI chatbot treated the person it was talking to as the account owner without verifying their identity.

The compromised accounts included the Obama-era White House Instagram handle, which had been inactive since 2017, and the account of US Space Force Chief Master Sergeant John Bentivegna. Security researcher Jane Wong said her account was also taken over.

“The password got changed without my knowledge and I was getting different password reset attempts throughout yesterday,” Wong said. “Quite concerning.” Multiple users on Reddit and X reported similar hijackings over the same weekend.

Instagram spokesperson Andy Stone said on Monday that the issue was fixed. It is unclear how many accounts were compromised. Meta did not respond to TechCrunch’s request for comment.

The attack is a textbook example of why deploying AI chatbots with account-level permissions is dangerous. Salesforce’s Agentforce customers have been reluctant to let AI agents take financially meaningful actions precisely because of this risk. Analyst Rebecca Wettemann described the fear as “the AI running off in the middle of the night and refunding a bunch of transactions.” Meta gave its AI the ability to reset passwords, and the AI did exactly what it was asked to do, for the wrong person.

The AI agent security landscape is producing new categories of vulnerability faster than companies can address them. OpenClaw’s Claw Chain exploit weaponised an agent’s own sandbox privileges. This Instagram attack weaponised an AI support bot’s account management privileges. The common thread: when an AI agent has the authority to act, the security of the system depends entirely on whether the agent can verify who is asking it to act.

The Meta AI Support Assistant was designed to reduce the cost of human customer service. It succeeded at that. It also created an attack surface that human support agents would not have: a human agent would have verified the caller’s identity before adding a new email to an account. The chatbot did not.

This is the third high-profile AI deployment failure in a single week. Starbucks scrapped its AI inventory system after nine months of miscounts. Waymo’s flood recall failed within two weeks. Meta’s AI chatbot gave hackers the keys to Instagram accounts. The pattern is consistent: AI systems deployed at scale fail in ways their designers did not anticipate, and the failures are more consequential than the efficiencies they were built to deliver.