At a Glance
- Three Democratic senators urged Apple and Google to remove Elon Musk’s X and Grok apps from their stores
- The apps allowed users to generate nonconsensual sexualized images of real people
- Why it matters: This could set precedent for how app stores handle AI-generated harmful content
Three Democratic senators have demanded Apple and Google remove Elon Musk’s X and Grok applications from their stores after users flooded the platform with nonconsensual sexualized images of real people.
The Demand
Sens. Ron Wyden of Oregon, Ed Markey of Massachusetts, and Ben Ray Luján of New Mexico sent an open letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook and Google CEO Sundar Pichai Thursday evening.
The senators asked the companies to enforce their terms of service that appear to ban the activity surging on X.
X adjusted how the Grok reply bot operated hours later, restricting image generation to paying premium subscribers and limiting what types of images the bot can create on X.
The Problem
The Grok reply bot churned out thousands of sexualized images hourly this week, mostly of women but sometimes children. Users prompted the official reply chatbot to generate sexualized images of nonconsenting people, modifying them to depict victims in revealing clothing.
X’s changes do not address concerns that Grok still floods social media feeds with nonconsensual sexual imagery, according to Sen. Wyden.
> “All X’s changes do is make some of its users pay for the privilege of producing horrific images on the X app, while Musk profits from the abuse of children.”
App Store Policies
Apple’s App Store terms forbid apps with offensive, insensitive, or overtly sexual content. Google’s Play Store does not allow apps containing nonconsensual sexual content.
Grok remains available in both stores, ranked No. 4 in Apple’s and No. 10 in Google’s Friday morning.
Key Takeaways
- Nonconsensual AI image generation is flooding social media platforms
App stores must decide whether to host apps enabling harmful content
Policy enforcement gaps exist between app store rules and harmful applications
The standoff highlights tensions between tech companies, regulators, and harmful AI applications.
