Apple and Google Ordered to Remove “Nudify” AI Services from Their App Stores

San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu has sent letters to Apple and Google demanding that they remove “nudify” services from their app stores — programs that use artificial intelligence to create nude images of people from ordinary photographs.

The substance of the complaint

The letters state that both companies have long been aware that their stores host apps that violate California state law. At issue are services that make it possible to generate explicit content without the consent of the people depicted in the source images.

The city attorney demanded that Apple and Google take action and pull such apps from the App Store and Google Play.

Context

Generative-AI “nudify” apps have been raising concerns among regulators and human rights advocates for years now: such services are used to create synthetic nude images of real people, including minors, without their knowledge or consent. This raises questions both about the responsibility of the developers of such apps and about the role of the platforms through which they are distributed.

The San Francisco city attorney's demand is addressed directly to Apple and Google as the operators of the largest mobile app stores, underscoring the growing pressure on technology companies over the moderation of content tied to AI tools for image manipulation.

Source: TechCrunch