San Francisco Demands Apple and Google Delete AI ‘Nudify’ Apps From App Stores

A city attorney has sent cease-and-desist letters to major tech companies demanding they remove apps from their stores that use artificial intelligence to create nonconsensual nude images of people. The apps, which advertise themselves as face-swapping tools, are overwhelmingly used to target women and girls, and the tech companies profit from in-app purchases made through these tools. This matters because researchers have found that such apps have been downloaded hundreds of millions of times, may have generated over one hundred million dollars in revenue, and incidents of deepfake sexual abuse images have been created of minors in at least 90 schools. The tech companies have policies prohibiting sexual content on their platforms but have faced repeated criticism for allowing these apps to remain available despite prior reports identifying the problem.