Apple has delayed the approval of an update to its email app with AI-powered tools due to worries that it may generate inappropriate content for children, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on Thursday, citing communications between the iPhone maker and the app developer.
An update to the email app, BlueMail, which uses a customized version of OpenAI’s GPT-3 language model, was blocked last week, Ben Volach, co-founder of BlueMail developer Blix Inc, told WSJ.
BlueMail’s new feature uses the ChatGPT chatbot to automate email writing using the contents of prior emails and events. ChatGPT technology is used to converse in a human-like way and is capable of long-form writing.
“Your app includes AI-generated content but does not appear to include content filtering at this time,” Apple’s app-review team said last week in a message to the developer, as reported by WSJ. It also asked BlueMail to move up its age restriction to 17 and older, or include a content filtering option.
Ben Volach, however, disagrees with Apple’s decision to delay the app update and said it was “unfairly targeting” the company.
“We want fairness,” he tweeted. “If we’re required to be 17-plus, then others should also have to.”
“Apple is making it really hard to bring innovation to our users,” he said. He also claimed that the request was unfair, given that other apps featuring AI capabilities are not subject to the same rules.
Earlier too, BlueMail and Apple have been at tenterhooks. Blix supported Fortnite maker Epic Games in its legal battle against Apple. It is also one of the founding members of the Coalition for App Fairness, which was established to challenge the commission that Apple takes from the App Store.
The developer filed a lawsuit alleging that Apple’s “Sign In With Apple” feature violated one of its patents.
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