The Republic will use its six-month presidency of the European Union to work on prohibiting the generation of non-consensual intimate images and child sexual abuse material, a meeting of the three Coalition principals agreed on Monday night.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin, Tánaiste Simon Harris and Independent Minister of State Seán Canney met in Government Buildings to discuss domestic and European laws relating to generating and sharing sexual abuse images on social media.
The meeting was held in response to the revelation that the artificial intelligence (AI) app Grok had a tool that allowed users to remove, or reduce, clothing on images of individuals, including children. X disabled the nudification function last week.
Representatives from Coimisiún na Meán were also present and briefed on its work on these issues to date, and new developments in the law in Europe.
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In a statement, the Government said it agreed to accept the key recommendations of a report prepared by the AI Advisory Council on the matter.
[ ‘Concerns remain’ around Grok despite X’s assurances, says MinisterOpens in new window ]
The prime recommendation is that the Government should use its EU presidency to expand the list of prohibited practices under the EU’s AI Act to include the generation of non-consensual intimate images and child sexual abuse material. Countries hosting the EU presidency become responsible for driving forward work on EU legislation.
The AI Advisory Council has recommended making it simpler for victims to report suspected sharing of non-consensual intimate image abuse.
It also recommends a new information campaign explaining that using AI to generate non-consensual intimate images of people is a potential criminal offence.
[ Will Grok backlash mark a turning point in AI regulation?Opens in new window ]
Minister with responsibility for AI Niamh Smyth held an online meeting with senior legal and policy officials from X on Friday. She said the social network platform conceded it hosted content that is illegal in the Republic. The officials told her X had halted Grok’s ability to make nude or remove clothing from images on its platform.
They also said the officials did not take responsibility for content created by Grok, arguing it was a different entity to X. They did take responsibility, she said, “for the dissemination of illegal material on the platform of X”.
Ms Smyth said social media companies could not distance themselves from material that appears on their platforms, especially explicit and intimate images of children that have been manipulated without their consent.
She said there is a fundamental need for safeguards to be present to stop these images from appearing in the first instance.
