Apple blocked an update for an app powered by the AI chatbot ChatGPT, as concerns grow over the harm that could result from AI especially for underage users.
Apple has not approved an app update for BlueMail, an app with AI-powered tools, due to concerns that it could generate inappropriate content for children, according to BlueMail co-founder Ben Volach, who shared documents with the Wall Street Journal.
Apple CEO Tim Cook waves as he arrives for the Economic Summit held for the China Development Forum in Beijing on March 23, 2019. (NG HAN GUAN/AFP via Getty Images)
“Your app includes AI-generated content but does not appear to include content filtering at this time,” Apple’s app-review team told BlueMail last week. The iPhone maker is asking the app to set an age restriction to 17 and older.
ChatGPT is an AI-powered chatbot developed by the San Francisco-based artificial intelligence company OpenAI. It uses deep learning techniques to analyze and understand the context of a given conversation or question, and can generate responses that seem real and human-like, and has become notorious for its woke leftist bias.
BlueMail’s new AI update reportedly uses the latest version of ChatGPT to help automate writing emails by using content of previous emails and calendar events.
But Apple’s app-review team said that ChatGPT could produce inappropriate content. Therefore, BlueMail needs to move up its age restriction to at least 17, or include content filtering, according to the documents.
The app’s age restriction is currently set for users four years old and older.
Volach told the Wall Street Journal that Apple’s decision is “making it really hard for us to bring innovation to our users.”
The BlueMail co-founder said Apple is unfairly targeting his app, and claimed that other apps with similar AI features don’t have age restrictions.
Moreover, Volach said that BlueMail already has content filtering, and that implementing a higher age restriction on the app could limit distribution to potential new users.
“We want fairness,” Volach said. “If we’re required to be 17-plus, then others should also have to.”
ChatGPT has sparked controversy since it has become a popular AI tool — particularly within the world of academia.
Last month, two Vanderbilt University deans were suspended after they used ChatGPT to write a 297-word email to students about a deadly mass shooting at Michigan State University.
Additionally, students in an elite academic program at a Florida high school have been accused of cheating by using ChatGPT to write their essays. In January, a survey suggested that 17 percent of students at Stanford University have already used ChatGPT on their final exams.
You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Facebook and Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.
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