Meta's "regret" over its scrapped AI tool is like a burglar apologising for the mess

A collage of diverse images including a group of animated friends taking a selfie, a person singing passionately into a microphone, a scenic coastal view, a miniature living room setup, a dog wearing a birthday hat, an intricate gold fox illustration, a black spray bottle, and a cartoon man playing a fiddle.

There's a specific flavour of tech industry apology we've all heard a hundred times now. Launch fast, break things, upset people, listen to the outrage, then reverse course while insisting your intentions were pure and you just got a little overexcited.

Meta delivered a textbook example of this last week, and if you're a creative professional whose work exists online, you need to pay attention.