Why do executives want to go after the platform, not the users?
As reported in the press release, officials want to impose “a new ban on so-called ‘nudifier’ systems that use AI to create or manipulate images that are sexually explicit or intimate and resemble an identifiable real person without that person’s consent.” However, “the ban will not apply to AI systems that have effective safeguards in place to prevent users from creating such images,” officials said.
As Bloomberg noted, the ban would apparently fundamentally change the EU’s approach to regulating deepfakes, going beyond simply prosecuting users and also punishing platforms. The Groke scandal “symbolizes” why such a regulatory change was needed, Bloomberg reported, noting that “this amendment is the first” EU policy “to specifically target” AI platforms that allow the production and sharing of “sexual content without the subject’s consent.”
While EU officials did not directly mention Grok in the press release, regulators were already investigating the AI system, while considering the implications of the XAI controversy for other, less visible naked apps. Submitting questions to the European Commission earlier this year, MPs warned:
Recent shocking reports of AI-powered nudity applications, such as Grok on
“These systems should be banned from the EU market,” the lawmakers urged, especially since “individual offenders” – who “can often be punished under national criminal law” – “are often difficult to find.” The lawmakers suggested that a more proactive plan would be to “prevent large-scale image-based sexual violence in the first place.”
The potential passage of the amendment, with the apparent support of members of parliament, would surely be disappointing for Musk, who is also facing legal challenges in the US seeking an injunction against Grok’s naked output. In January, Ashley St. Clair, the mother of one of Musk’s children, became one of the first victims to file a lawsuit. And recently, three young girls in Tennessee filed a proposed class action representing all children harmed by Grok’s alleged CSAM output.
In the EU, similar public pressure is growing on regulators to intervene, as XAI is unwilling to stop Grok from stripping real people. Michael McNamara, a member of the Civil Liberties Committee, said in the press release that he believes the proposal to ban Nudify apps is “something our citizens expect.”
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