The European Union is set to ban artificial intelligence tools that generate child sexual abuse material and non-consensual explicit images of adults.

Negotiators from the European Parliament and Council agreed on Thursday to prohibit these AI systems, pending formal adoption into law.

This formalisation is expected before early August, covering images, video, and audio. The ban applies to AI systems on the EU market intended to create such content or lacking reasonable safety measures. Companies have until 2 December to ensure their systems comply.

This forms part of a wider agreement on AI tools.

Irish MEP Michael McNamara, who is co-rapporteur for the Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs committee, said: “We secured a ban on nudification applications, one of our key demands.

“We fought for it because non-consensual intimate imagery is a systemic harm being industrialised by AI and in which the overwhelming majority of victims are women and girls.”

Mr McNamara said it will be the first time such…