San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu has issued cease-and-desist letters to Apple and Google, demanding the removal of 13 specific applications from their app stores that use AI to create non-consensual nude images. The letters accuse the companies of "aiding and abetting" the spread of explicit deepfake images and profiting from them, a violation of California state law.
Chiu's office stated that the tech giants have likely earned millions in fees from these apps and urged them to improve their content moderation to prevent such apps from being approved in the first place. In response, Google confirmed it had already removed the apps identified by Chiu, along with hundreds of others in the same category. Apple has not issued a public comment on the matter. This action follows previous research identifying numerous 'nudify' apps available for download, some even rated for all ages.