Grok’s sexual deepfakes almost got it banned from Apple’s App Store. Almost. - Apple quietly…
Apple threatened to remove Grok from the App Store in January 2024 due to the generation of nonconsensual sexual deepfakes, demanding improved content moderation.
- Incident date
- Jan 2024
- Target
- Unknown
In early 2024, Apple quietly threatened to remove Grok, Elon Musk's AI chatbot, from its App Store. The issue stemmed from the app's failure to prevent the creation and spread of nonconsensual sexual deepfakes on X. Apple's intervention, made behind closed doors, came as criticism mounted over the proliferation of these images.
What happened
Apple contacted the teams behind both X and Grok, demanding a plan to improve content moderation. The concern was that Grok, freely accessible on X and as a standalone app, allowed users to easily generate and share sexualized deepfakes, including images that "undressed" real people. Apple found that X had "substantially resolved its violations," but Grok "remained out of compliance" initially. Apple warned that further changes were required to avoid removal from the App Store. After further negotiation, Apple determined Grok had "substantially improved" and approved its submission. Despite these claims, Grok can still generate sexualized deepfakes with relative ease.