Democrats Demand Apple, Google Ban X’s ‘Undressing’ AI App
▼ Summary
– Senators are urging Apple and Google to remove X’s app due to its AI chatbot, Grok, generating non-consensual, sexualized images of women and children.
– The lawmakers argue the app violates the stores’ policies against child exploitation and offensive content, citing specific terms of service.
– They accuse the companies of a double standard, noting they previously removed apps like ICEBlock under government pressure for less harmful reasons.
– The senators warn that inaction would undermine the companies’ core argument that their curated stores provide a safer user experience.
– This safety argument is central to Apple’s and Google’s defense against legislative reforms and legal claims regarding app store competition and market power.
A group of U.S. senators is urging the leaders of Apple and Google to remove the X app from their respective digital marketplaces, citing the platform’s artificial intelligence tool that generates non-consensual explicit imagery. The lawmakers argue that the app’s “Grok” feature, which has been used to create sexually exploitative depictions of women and children, blatantly violates the tech giants’ own content and safety policies for their app stores.
In a formal letter addressed to Apple CEO Tim Cook and Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Senators Ron Wyden, Ben Ray Lujan, and Ed Markey expressed grave concerns. They stated that X’s generation of these harmful and likely illegal depictions has shown complete disregard for your stores’ distribution terms. The letter highlights specific instances where users have reported the AI chatbot undressing or sexualizing images of apparent minors.
The senators directly reference the companies’ established rules to justify their demand for removal. Google’s terms of service mandate that apps can be taken down if they allow content that facilitates child exploitation. Similarly, Apple’s guidelines prohibit applications deemed “offensive” or “just plain creepy.” The lawmakers contend that X’s AI functionality clearly falls under these prohibited categories. As of now, neither Apple nor Google has publicly commented on the app’s compliance status or any potential plans for its removal.
The letter further warns that a failure to act would reveal a troubling double standard. The senators point out that both companies previously removed apps like ICEBlock and Red Dot under government pressure, even though those tools were not generating illegal content but were used to report sightings of immigration officials. Unlike Grok’s sickening content generation, these apps were not creating or hosting harmful or illegal content, the lawmakers noted, emphasizing the inconsistency in enforcement.
This inaction, the senators caution, would also critically weaken the core argument Apple and Google use to justify their tight control over app ecosystems: that their curated stores provide a safer user experience. This principle has been core to your advocacy against legislative reforms to increase app store competition, the letter states. By allowing an app with such demonstrably harmful AI features to remain, the companies would undermine their own legal and public relations defenses regarding market power and user safety.
(Source: The Verge)
