"Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney has clarified his statements regarding X's AI generation of nonconsensual sexual images of minors and women, saying he merely "criticized a government official" for pressuring publicly traded companies for attempting to "block a speech app owned by their political opponent.""
"Right around the January 9 weekend, news broke that X users were turning to Grok, the platform's AI tool, to create images of minors and women in sexually compromising outfits and positions. The situation drew the attention of US Senators Ben Ray Lujan (D-NM), Edward Markey (D-MA), and Ron Wyden (D-OR), who wrote a letter to Apple and Google requesting that the companies remove the Grok and X apps from their app stores for the "mass generation of nonconsensual sexualized images of women and children." The senators have asked for a written response from both companies by January 23."
"In response to the letter, which MacRumors reported and shared on X, Tim Sweeney quoted the post on January 9 and said that senators using their political power to remove these apps for the harm they have caused are "gatekeepers" who are trying to "censor all of their political opponents." He continued in a follow-up post, explaining that no major AI company is "perfect" because they all have "documented instances of [their tech] going off the rails" and that these companies "make their best efforts to combat this.""
"After PC Gamer ran a story on January 11 criticizing Sweeney for what it described as a defense of "an unprecedented online sexual humiliation machine," Sweeney responded to the outlet's reporting, calling the story a "vile lie" that misconstrued his statements."
X users reportedly used Grok to generate sexualized images of minors and women, prompting senators Ben Ray Lujan, Edward Markey, and Ron Wyden to ask Apple and Google to remove Grok and X from their app stores. The senators requested written responses by January 23. Tim Sweeney quoted the MacRumors-shared letter and characterized senators who push for removals as "gatekeepers" seeking to "censor all of their political opponents." Sweeney acknowledged that no major AI company is "perfect," noted documented failures, and said companies make efforts to combat misuse. Sweeney called a PC Gamer story a "vile lie."
Read at GameSpot
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