- X’s Grok AI tool created pornographic images of women and children
- US senators have now asked Apple and Google to ban these apps.
- Malaysia and Indonesia have already blocked the use of apps
In recent weeks, it emerged that Grok, the artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot built into X, was actively used to generate explicit images of children and women without their consent, leading to calls for Apple and Google to remove the Grok and X apps from their respective app stores.
Now pressure has intensified after a group of US senators wrote a letter to Apple and Google demanding they take action – and today Britain’s media watchdog Ofcom said it had also launched a formal investigation.
The US letter was signed by Senators Ron Wyden, Ben Ray Lujan and Edward Markey, and calls on companies to “enforce your app store terms of service” because “Generation
After detailing how Grok “altered images to depict women being sexually abused, humiliated, injured, and even killed” and how “Grok allegedly created sexualized images of children,” the senators pointed out that these actions violate Apple and Google App Store policies.
Google’s terms of service “prohibit users from creating, uploading, or distributing content that facilitates the exploitation or abuse of children,” the senators say, “including prohibiting the depiction of children in any way that could result in their sexual exploitation.”
Apple, for its part, expressly prohibits “overtly sexual or pornographic material.” The senators say that “turning a blind eye to X’s egregious behavior would be a mockery of your moderation practices.”
Pressure on X and Musk increases
The group of US senators also highlighted the recent reluctance of Apple and Google to oppose greater regulatory scrutiny of their app stores.
“Failure to act would undermine your assertions in public and in court that your app stores provide a safer user experience than letting users download apps directly to their phones,” the senators wrote, adding that “this principle has been at the heart of your advocacy against legislative reforms aimed at increasing competition among app stores and of your defenses against allegations that your app stores abuse their market power through their payment systems.” »
Apple and Google have proven they can move quickly to ban apps, the senators note. “Your companies quickly removed apps that allowed users to legally report immigration enforcement activities, like ICEBlock and Red Dot,” they claim. “Unlike Grok’s sickening content generation, these apps did not create or host harmful or illegal content, and yet, based entirely on [US Government’s] Claiming they posed a risk to law enforcement, you removed them from your stores.
The senators hope that Apple and Google will “demonstrate a similar level of responsiveness and take swift action to remove the X and Grok apps from your app stores.”
Whether Apple and Google act or not, X and Grok face growing pressure around the world. The Indonesian and Malaysian governments recently blocked Grok in light of the image generation controversy, and with lawmakers in the United Kingdom, European Union and India also taking a close look at the AI tool, they may not be the only countries taking action.
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