• Democratic senators (Wyden, Lujan, Markey) demand Apple and Google remove X's Grok AI from their app stores, citing concerns over non-consensual AI-generated images, including depictions of minors.
• The lawmakers argue Grok violates Google Play and Apple’s policies against child exploitation and offensive content, threatening the platforms' credibility if they fail to act.
• The three senators called for temporary removal of X pending investigation and request a written response by Jan. 23.
• Critics note that while AI-generated imagery is a widespread issue (OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini), yet only X is singled out – suggesting political bias rather than objective enforcement.
• Uneven enforcement of app store rules risks turning digital gatekeeping into a censorship tool, leaving underlying AI ethics problems unresolved.

Apple and Google are facing renewed political pressure from Democratic lawmakers over X's artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot Grok after three U.S. senators accused the platform of generating images depicting women and, in some cases, allegedly minors, in bikinis.

In a letter sent to Apple CEO Tim Cook and Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden, New Mexico Sen. Ben Ray Lujan and Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey questioned whether X should continue to be distributed through the companies' app stores. They argued that the platform has enabled the widespread creation and dissemination of non-consensual sexual imagery.

The lawmakers cited Google Play policies that prohibit apps facilitating the "exploitation or abuse of children." They also pointed to Apple's guidelines banning content that is "offensive" or "just plain creepy."

"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," the senators wrote.

The lawmakers then argued that Grok's image-generation capabilities violate app store rules and called on Apple and Google to remove X unless the issues are addressed. "Given the severity of the harm, at the very least, temporary removal pending a full investigation of the claims is appropriate," they wrote, adding that they need a written response by Jan. 23.

Problem over AI images spans all major platforms

AI-generated imagery, according to BrightU.AI's Enoch, is the process of creating visual content, such as images or videos, using artificial intelligence algorithms that are trained on large datasets of existing media. This technology allows for the generation of highly detailed and realistic images based on textual descriptions or other input data.

While the senators' letter focuses exclusively on X, the broader issue of AI-generated imagery extends well beyond a single platform. In an article written for Reclaim the Net, Cindy Harper argued that image manipulation and synthetic content generation are features found across most major AI systems, including both proprietary and open-source models, many of which can produce similar results with minimal prompting.

However, Harper claimed that the senators only singled out one company, but did not call for comparable action against other AI-powered apps available in Apple's App Store or Google Play. OpenAI's ChatGPT, which Apple has partnered with for Siri, and Google's own Gemini AI tool are among systems that researchers and users have shown can also generate comparable synthetic images under certain conditions.

"Targeting one company as a scapegoat may ease political outrage, but does little to address the structural problem that all advanced AI models can create content that crosses ethical or legal boundaries. When app store policies are enforced in response to political attention rather than objective criteria, it strengthens the argument that digital gatekeeping is being used as a tool of control rather than a neutral system of protection. The result is an environment where large corporations and government officials determine who gets silenced, while the underlying technological issues remain unresolved," she concluded.

Watch this clip from "The Kim Iversen Show" about X's Grok AI calling out Israel's genocide – and getting suspended on its own platform.

This video is from the alltheworldsastage channel on Brighteon.com.

Sources include:

ReclaimtheNet.org

Docs.ReclaimtheNet.org ^[PDF]

BrightU.ai

Brighteon.com