X and Grok are in serious trouble as three United States Senators are asking for the takedown of the platforms, reaching out to both Apple and Google to remove these apps.
US Senators Ask Apple for X, Grok Takedown
Senators Ron Wyden, Edward J. Mackey, and Ben Ray Luján have come together to issue a press release stating that they have sent a letter to both Apple and Google about the takedown of X and Grok.
This is because they claim that X and Grok’s AI tool have both been used to generate “nonconsensual sexualized images of women and children at scale.”
In recent days, U.S. senators have expressed concern that there has been a massive wave of inappropriate content spreading on X that stemmed from the misuse of their AI content generation tool.
The generations from X and Grok use imagery from “real, private citizens,” said the senators, depicting harrowing acts of women being “sexually abused, humiliated, hurt and even killed.”
“Turning a blind eye to X’s egregious behavior would make a mockery of your moderation practices,” the senators wrote in a separate letter addressed to both Apple CEO Tim Cook and Google CEO Sundar Pichai.
“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,” they added
The U.S. senators also said that both Apple and Google made swift actions in a recent takedown of an app that violated their app store policies, citing the removal of the ICEBlock app, which is best known for tracking federal and law enforcement officials.
X and Grok’s ‘Sickening’ Content Generation
The U.S. senators said that X’s Grok AI tool has created “sickening” content generation on the platform, which depict real people, especially women and children, in a sexualized manner.
These images are nonconsensual, but more importantly, the senators call it illegal and are “potentially child sexual abuse materials.” They also claim that it has been going on for quite some time.
Senators Wyden, Mackey, and Luján also referenced research that pointed out that this Grok issue has long been available on the platform since before it blew up.
They said, “Researchers have also found a Grok app archive reportedly containing nearly 100 images of potential child sexual abuse materials generated since August, in addition to many other nonconsensual nude depictions of real people being tortured and worse.”
X’s owner and xAI CEO and founder, Elon Musk, was not spared by the U.S. senators as well, claiming that he “encouraged” this type of behavior on the platform by acknowledging the inappropriate use of X’s content generation
features. The senators also said that Musk even went as far as to react to the posts online with “laugh-cry emojis.”
The full letter calling for X and Grok’s takedown is available here.
Originally published on Tech Times
