European lawmakers have taken a decisive step that could force Elon Musk's xAI to fundamentally redesign its Grok chatbot. A committee vote in the European Parliament has overwhelmingly backed a proposal to explicitly ban AI systems that generate non-consensual intimate imagery, including so-called 'nudifier' apps.

The move aims to close a loophole in the bloc's existing Artificial Intelligence Act. Regulators had previously acknowledged the law did not clearly prohibit the creation of sexually explicit deepfakes or AI-generated child abuse material. This new amendment, expected to pass, would create that prohibition.

It presents a direct conflict with xAI's current policy. The company has chosen not to implement technical safeguards within Grok to prevent such outputs. Instead, it has placed the feature behind a paywall for subscribers, with terms of service that threaten to suspend users and hold them legally responsible for generating harmful content. This approach has largely shielded the company from liability in the United States, even under new legislation.

In Europe, however, the calculus changes. If the ban is enacted, xAI would be compelled to actively prevent Grok from producing this material—likely requiring significant technical intervention to filter its responses. Failure to comply could result in fines of up to 7% of the company's global revenue. For Musk, the choice becomes one of engineering a tamer chatbot or facing substantial financial risk, all while competing in an expensive market against well-funded rivals. The EU's decision, potentially effective by late summer, leaves little room for his current blame-shifting tactic.

Source: Ars Technica