Following nude-deepfake outcry, Apple nearly kicked Grok off App Store: report

Apple reportedly threatened to yank Elon Musk’s Grok from its App Store over complaints the AI app wasn’t doing enough to stop users from creating nude or overly sexualized deepfakes — a potentially major blow as Grok came under international scrutiny for the content it was being used to create.The threat, which surfaced in a recently revealed missive to US senators, came after Apple determined that Grok — along with Musk’s social media site X — were in violation of Apple rules barring overtly sexual material.Apple took the drastic step after asking X and Grok to clamp down on functions that allowed users to create sexualized deepfakes, according to a Jan.30 letter cited by NBC News.Apple had determined Grok’s efforts to address the problem — which included the use of AI to undress images of people with their consent — hadn’t gone far enough, Apple reportedly wrote Democratic Sens.

Ben Ray Luján of New Mexico, Ed Markey of Massachusetts and Ron Wyden of Oregon.X had announced a crackdown on using AI for undressing images on Jan.14, saying that the restriction “applies to all users, including paid subscribers.” And Apple reportedly said it asked X and Grok to come up with a plan to improve content moderation, though that was found to be lacking.“Apple … determined that X had substantially resolved its violations, but the Grok app remained out of compliance.

As a result, we rejected the Grok submission and notified the developer that additional changes to remedy the violation would be required, or the app could be removed from the App Store,” Apple wrote the senators.Following Apple’s threat, Grok submitted new code to the tech giant, according to NBC News — apparently resolving the dispute for now.“Following further engagement and changes by the Grok developer, we determined that Grok had substantially improved and therefore approved its latest submission,” Apple wrote the senators. The letter, signed by Apple’s senior dire...