Apple and Google asked to take down X and Grok apps over ‘sickening’ image generation: here's what you should know

A group of US Senators have now asked Apple and Google to pull down the X and Grok apps from their App Stores over the chatbot’s “mass generation of nonconsensual sexualized images of women and children.” The chatbot, which is baked deep into the X experience, has been mired in controversy after its image editing capabilities were exploited by users to digitally remove clothes from women and children.

After growing criticism over Grok’s nonconsensual image generation, the chatbot claimed earlier this week that its image editing feature was being restricted to paying users. However, the company is yet to clarify whether this is actually the case.

In any event, the three US Senators, Ron Wyden, Ed Markey, and Ben Ray Luján, now want Tim Cook and Sundar Pichai to step in and temporarily remove the Grok and X apps from their App Stores. The senators termed Grok’s image generation “sickening” and said that the stores should keep these apps off their platforms until X’s policy violations are addressed.

“We write to ask that you enforce your app stores’ terms of service against X Corp’s X and Grok apps for their mass generation of nonconsensual sexualized images of women and children. X’s generation of these harmful and likely illegal depictions of women and children has shown complete disregard for your stores’ distribution terms,” the senators said in their open letter.

The senators also claimed that X has “encouraged” this behaviour, alleging that CEO Musk acknowledged the disturbing trend with laugh-cry emoji reactions. They further stated that researchers have recently discovered a Grok app archive that is said to contain around 100 images of potential child sexual abuse material generated by the chatbot since August.

“There can be no mistake about X’s knowledge, and, at best, negligent response to these trends,” the senators wrote.

“Turning a blind eye to X’s egregious behavior would make a mockery of your moderation practices. Indeed, not taking action 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,” they added.

Amid mounting criticism, Musk said last week that users who generate illegal content using Grok will face legal consequences.