EU Plans Prohibition of AI Nudification Tools After Grok Scandal

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European Union lawmakers are pushing for a ban on nudification tools that use AI to generate sexualized deepfakes of real people, following controversy involving the Grok chatbot integrated into Elon Musk’s social media platform X.

Last year, Grok users discovered they could ask the AI tool to undress individuals or place them in revealing clothing, sparking global concern over the spread of non-consensual sexualized deepfakes. The victims were mostly women. Grok is believed to have generated 3 million sexualized images in 11 days, including sexualized images of children every 41 seconds, leading to calls to ban nudification apps.

A proposal set for EU ambassador approval on Friday would ban marketing any AI tool capable of generating non-consensual sexualized content of real people in the EU, including videos, images, and audio. The plans could be implemented by this summer.

Politico reported that legislators are doing this by amending the EU’s Artificial Intelligence Act, including a ban on AI tools that can generate visual or audio content “of an identifiable natural person’s intimate parts or of an identifiable natural person engaged in sexually explicit activities.”

The amended text has not yet been finalized. EU parliamentary committees will vote on it on March 18.

X has since limited Grok’s ability to generate sexualized deepfakes and has said it is “committed to making X a safe platform for everyone and continue[s] to have zero tolerance for any forms of child sexual exploitation, non-consensual nudity, and unwanted sexual content.” 

Further action may still be required from X to ensure compliance with digital safety laws in the EU.