Apple privately threatened to remove Elon Musk’s AI application, Grok, from its App Store earlier this year following a surge of nonconsensual sexual deepfakes on the X platform, according to a report by The Verge.
Internal communications obtained by NBC News show that Apple contacted the teams behind both X and Grok in January. The tech giant demanded a plan to improve content moderation after receiving complaints regarding the generation of sexualized imagery.
At the time, the Grok chatbot allowed users to easily create and share "undress" images of real people, including women and minors. The Verge reported that these features constituted flagrant violations of App Store guidelines.
A behind-the-scenes negotiation
Apple’s intervention occurred behind closed doors while the deepfake crisis played out publicly. The company noted in a letter to US senators that it reviewed proposed changes to the apps.
While Apple concluded that X had "substantially resolved its violations," it found that Grok "remained out of compliance." The company warned developers that "additional changes to remedy the violation would be required, or the app could be removed from the App Store."
Grok eventually returned to compliance after further negotiations. Apple stated the app had "substantially improved" before approving its latest submission.
During this period, X implemented several moderation layers, such as limiting Grok access to paying subscribers. However, investigations by The Verge found these measures were largely ineffective at stopping the creation of explicit content.
