Apple and Google are being dragged into the uproar around X’s AI chatbot that has continued to virtually undress women in images without their consent this week.
In a letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook and Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Sens. Ron Wyden (D-OR), Ben Ray Lujan (D-NM), and Ed Markey (D-MA) wrote that “X’s generation of these harmful and likely illegal depictions of women and children has shown complete disregard for your stores’ distribution terms.” X users have identified several cases where Grok undressed or sexualized apparent minors in the AI-created images.
The senators point to the app stores’ own policies for why the app should be removed. Google’s terms of service say that apps are subject to removal if they fail to bar users from “creating, uploading, or distributing content that facilitates the exploitation or abuse of children” or portray kids “in a manner that could result in the sexual exploitation of children.” Apple prohibits apps that are “offensive” or “just plain creepy.” Apple and Google did not immediately respond to requests for comment on whether X was in compliance with their policies and whether they planned to remove the app.
Failing to remove X from the app stores would both show a double standard, and undermine the companies’ arguments for their control over the app stores in the first place, the lawmakers write. Both companies removed ICEBlock and Red Dot from their stores following government pressure. The apps were used to anonymously report sightings of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. “Unlike Grok’s sickening content generation, these apps were not creating or hosting harmful or illegal content, and yet, based entirely on the Administration’s claims that they posed a risk to immigration enforcers, you removed them from your stores,” the senators wrote.
They also warned that inaction would “undermine your claims in public and in court that your app stores offer a safer user experience than letting users download apps directly to their phones. This principle has been core to your advocacy against legislative reforms to increase app store competition and your defenses to claims that your app stores abuse their market power through their payment systems.”
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