European Union strikes deal to ban sexualised AI deepfakes

European Union lawmakers and countries agreed to ban artificial intelligence systems generating sexualised deepfakes on Thursday (May 7, 2026), after 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, adopted in 2024.

EU negotiators from the European Parliament and European capitals 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 for stand-alone AI systems and a year later for AI tools embedded in other products, but will now be pushed back to December 2027 and August 2028 respectively.

The EU executive proposed the amendments last year in a bid, it said, to help businesses and avoid stymying innovation — but still hopes 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.

The EU executive has had several meetings with Anthropic but has no far not been able to gain access to the model, but that could change later this year.

“Once the enforcement powers of the AI Office start in August 2026, we will ensure to receive, if needed, model access,” an EU spokesperson said.

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”, the spokesperson said.

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 (May 4, 2026).