App Store AI Safety: Grok Risks & Safe Alternatives (Adobe, Canva)

THE APP STORE MIRAGE: PROTECTING YOUR DIGITAL GIFTS FROM THE NEW AI WILD WEST

As a product reviewer, I am usually talking about battery life, screen resolution, or whether a new gadget is worth the steep price tag. But lately, the conversation has shifted from hardware to the invisible software that lives inside it. We are currently witnessing a massive breakdown in the safety systems we have come to rely on, and it’s not just a minor disagreement between tech companies. It is a fundamental crisis of trust.

A coalition of 28 advocacy groups, including major tech watchdogs and women’s rights organizations, recently sent open letters to Apple CEO Tim Cook and Google CEO Sundar Pichai. Their demand is simple but heavy: remove X (formerly Twitter) and its AI chatbot, Grok, from their app stores. The reason isn’t just about toxic discourse or political bickering. It is about the generation and spread of nonconsensual intimate imagery (NCII) and, more disturbingly, child sexual abuse material (CSAM). These aren’t just policy violations; they are criminal acts, and the fact that these tools remain easily accessible through the major app stores should make every consumer pause.

THE ILLUSION OF THE WALLED GARDEN

For years, Apple and Google have marketed their app stores as walled gardens—safe, curated spaces where every app is vetted to ensure it meets strict ethical and safety guidelines. We pay a premium for their devices because we believe in that vetting process. When we gift a tablet or a smartphone, we assume that the gatekeepers are doing their jobs.

However, the Grok situation reveals a massive crack in the wall. Because Grok is an AI integrated within the X app, it can be used to generate horrific content that bypasses traditional moderation filters. When advocacy groups have to publicly beg the world’s most powerful CEOs to grow a spine and enforce their own rules, the illusion of safety vanishes. As a consumer, you can no longer assume that because an app is available for download, it is safe for your family. We have moved from an era of curated trust into an era of digital self-defense.

THE MIDDLE SCHOOL IPAD SCENARIO

Let’s get specific about why this matters to you. Imagine you are setting up a new iPad for a middle-schooler—perhaps a gift for a budding artist or a student who needs it for schoolwork. You’ve set up the Screen Time limits and you think you’ve done your due diligence. But if that child has access to apps where generative AI can be coerced into creating harmful imagery, those parental controls become almost useless.

The gap between app store policy and real-world practice means that a 12-year-old can be three clicks away from tools that generate imagery that should never exist. This isn’t a hypothetical tech-savvy niece scenario; it is a daily reality for parents and gifters. When you give someone a device, you are also giving them an entry point into these ecosystems. If the platforms aren’t going to police their own stores, the responsibility falls squarely on us to choose better tools for the people we care about.

SAFER HARBORS: AI TOOLS THAT ACTUALLY PRIORITIZE SAFETY

You don’t have to swear off AI entirely to keep your gift recipients safe. There are companies that have approached generative AI with a safety-first mindset, building guardrails into the very foundation of their products rather than trying to patch them in later. If you are looking for creative AI tools to recommend or include with a digital gift, here are two specific, high-value alternatives that have proven themselves more responsible than the current wild west of Grok.

ADOBE FIREFLY

Adobe has taken what they call a commercially safe approach. Unlike other AI models that were trained by scraping the entire internet—the good, the bad, and the illegal—Firefly was trained on Adobe Stock images, openly licensed content, and public domain content where the copyright has expired. This means it is significantly less likely to generate the kind of infringing or harmful content that is currently plaguing other platforms. For a student or a creative professional, it is a much more stable and ethical choice.

CANVA MAGIC MEDIA

Canva has become a staple for students and small business owners for a reason. Their Magic Studio suite includes robust safety filters and a program they call Canva Shield. They have invested heavily in automated moderation that prevents the generation of harmful content before it even appears on the screen. It is designed to be used in classrooms and professional environments, which means their tolerance for unsafe content is zero.

TAKING THE POWER BACK AS A CONSUMER

We often feel like we are at the mercy of big tech’s decisions, but we actually hold the ultimate leverage: our attention and our wallets. This situation with X and Grok should be a wake-up call to stop relying solely on the App Store’s four-star ratings and start looking at the ethics of the developers behind the apps.

If you are gifting a device or a subscription this year, make safety a primary feature you shop for, not an afterthought. Here is how you can vet a digital product effectively:

First, look for a transparency report. Responsible AI developers will be open about how many requests they block and how they handle moderation. If a company is silent on these issues, that is a red flag.

Second, check the training data. If an AI tool is evasive about where its data comes from, it is likely because they took a move fast and break things approach, which usually leads to the kind of safety violations we are seeing now.

Third, ignore the marketing hype. A tool that can do anything usually means it has no boundaries. Boundaries are a good thing when it comes to the safety of our digital lives.

A NEW STANDARD FOR DIGITAL GIVING

As we move deeper into 2026, the novelty of AI is wearing off, and the reality of its impact is setting in. We can no longer afford to be passive consumers. The advocacy groups fighting to get Grok off the app stores are doing the hard work of holding giants accountable, but we can do our part by choosing where we spend our time and money.

When you give a gift, you want it to bring joy, creativity, and connection—not a hidden minefield of unsafe content. By choosing platforms like Adobe or Canva over unmoderated AI tools, you are sending a message to Apple and Google that safety isn't optional.

Informed skepticism is the most valuable tool a consumer has right now. It is okay to be excited about the future of technology, but it is even better to be smart about who you trust to be a part of it. Let’s demand better from our platforms and, until they listen, let’s choose the tools that actually respect the safety of their users.