Apple has blocked an email app that uses ChatGPT from its App Store over concerns it could generate inappropriate content for children.
Email app BlueMail has been rejected from the App Store, and asked by Apple to enforce a 17+ rating before being allowed on the store.
“Your app includes AI-generated content but does not appear to include content filtering at this time,” Apple’s app-review team wrote to the developer.
Ben Volach, co-founder of BlueMail developer Blix, doesn’t agree with the demand, and has challenged the rejection.
“Apple is making it really hard for us to bring innovation to our users,” Volach told the Wall Street Journal, saying the company is unfairly targeting BlueMail.
“We want fairness,” Volach said. “If we’re required to be 17-plus, then others should also have to.”
This could be an early sign of the trouble developers will have proving their AI-powered apps are safe for younger users.
It also points to the power that Apple and Google will have in moderating and controlling this fast-growing technology.
