European Union lawmakers and countries have agreed to ban artificial intelligence systems that generate sexualised deepfakes, following global outrage this year over non-consensual nudes produced by Elon Musk’s chatbot Grok.
“Today the EU has drawn a red line. AI must never be used to humiliate, exploit or endanger people. For the first time, EU legislation explicitly bans nudifier applications,” centrist EU lawmaker Michael McNamara told AFP.
The new ban will be included in changes to the EU’s comprehensive rules on AI, which were adopted in 2024.
EU negotiators also agreed to delay the implementation of high-risk AI rules, concerning models deemed potentially dangerous to safety, health, or citizens’ fundamental rights. The rules had been due to enter into force in August 2026 but will now be pushed back to December 2027 for stand-alone AI systems and August 2028 for AI tools embedded in other products.
The EU executive proposed the amendments last year to help businesses and avoid stymying innovation, while still hoping to steer the technology’s safe development via other provisions of the AI Act.
Powerful AI models have come under renewed scrutiny in the EU in recent weeks after American AI developer Anthropic restricted the release of Mythos, which the company itself worries could be a boon for hackers. EU lawmakers have warned of the “emerging threat to European cybersecurity” and that the bloc was “ill-equipped” to handle advanced AI tools like Mythos.
Thirty MEPs from across different political groups called on the bloc to revise its cybersecurity rules in a letter to the EU executive dated Monday. The AI regulation office, made up of dozens of tech experts, lawyers, and economists, will have “unique access to providers’ internal safety and security practices,” an EU spokesperson said.
