The Reason Apple Wants to Restrict This ChatGPT in Using Email App

Apple has denied an upgrade to the email program BlueMail that included the ChatGPT chatbot, asking the developer to first apply content screening or age limits before the update can be issued.

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This is Apple's policy for applications that generate AI-generated content. According to Apple's App Review division, because AI may create content that is inappropriate for younger audiences, one of the two aforementioned protections must be implemented before release.

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Nevertheless, Ben Volach, co-founder of BlueMail developer Blix Inc., said that BlueMail already has content screening and that other apps on the App Store with similar AI capabilities do not have age limitations.

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BlueMail's new AI feature incorporates OpenAI's popular ChatGPT chatbot into the email client, allowing users to automate email authoring. It checks prior emails and calendar events to ensure the content is relevant.

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"Apple is making it very difficult for us to offer innovation to our consumers," Volach remarked. A spokeswoman for the App Review Board informed the WSJ (opens in new tab) that the App Review Board is presently investigating Blix's allegation.

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Volach also alleges that a test version of the modified software was evaluated every day for a week before Apple rejected it. The Android version of the improved software, on the other hand, was approved on the Google Play Store with no age limits or content screening.

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He argues that Apple is unfairly targeting BlueMail and that age limitations will limit its capacity to market the program to new customers.

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Apple appears to be more concerned about the perils of AI than other major technology businesses. It has been glaringly absent from the current arms race between Microsoft, a major supporter of OpenAI, and Google, which has just integrated its chatbot models (opens in new tab) into its search engine Bing.

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It may only be a matter of time until Apple joins in - on an earnings call last month, Apple CEO Tim Cook stated that AI is a "big emphasis of ours" - but for now, it appears to be keeping a close check on the AI in iOS apps.

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On the iPhone, Bing's new smartphone app with AI integration is restricted to those aged 17 and up, but the Android version on the Google Play Store has no age limits. Yet, according to a Microsoft spokeswoman, this has always been the case due to its capacity to display pornographic content as a conventional web browser.

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"We demand justice, If we have to be 17 or older, then others should as well." Volach stated.

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