Apple rejects app updates that use ChatGPT and annoys creators

Apple rejected an update to its BlueMail app, which uses a version of OpenAI ChatGPT to automate email creation. Big Tech claimed that the tool could generate content that is inappropriate for children, according to the documentation provided by the app.

To be approved in the App Store, Apple requests that the app’s age limit be revised to 17 or a content filter applied. The company also said that developers have the option to appeal a refusal through the App Review Board process.

Examine BlueMail GEM AI in action as you compose an email addressing Apple’s unfair behavior. Apple continues to block @bluemail update and this has led to frustration among consumers who were not able to fully enjoy it. pic.twitter.com/ELsz6DNdnk

— Ben Volach?? (@benvol) March 2, 2023

Blix, the company responsible for the app, criticized Apple for discriminating against other apps with similar features for not having age restrictions. “Other GPT-based apps seem off-limits,” Blix founder Ben Volach told the news agency. Reuters.

The company has managed to update BlueMail on the Google Play Store without asking for age restrictions or content filters.

conflict history

This isn’t the first conflict between Volach and the Tim Cook-led company. When the big tech rolled out the “Sign with Apple” feature in 2019, Blix claimed it had a similar patent to the mechanism. At the time, Apple removed BlueMail from the app store, citing security issues that the app developer denied.

Blix filed a lawsuit against Apple, but a federal judge dismissed the lawsuit for lack of evidence of anti-competitive behavior. BlueMail has hired attorney Jonathan Kanter as its legal counsel. In 2021, Kanter became head of the US Department of Justice’s antitrust division, which conducted an investigation into Apple.