Government accused of ‘muted and confusing’ response to Grok abusive images
By Rebecca Black and Bairbre Holmes, Press Association
The Government has been accused of a “muted” and “confusing” response to the generation of abusive images by the social media AI tool Grok.
Grok is an AI tool embedded in the social media platform X, and it has come under fire in recent days over reports users can create sexual abuse images, including of children.
Social Democrats leader Holly Cairns pressed Taoiseach Micheál Martin on the issue during Leaders’ Questions in the Dáil on Tuesday.
Ms Cairns read out some examples of commands given to Grok to alter images, saying hundreds of thousands of abusive images had been generated.
“Last year, edit features were added to Grok to make it easy to undress people in photographs – incredibly, no thought was apparently given how this tool could be used and weaponised against women,” she said.
“The company didn’t even bother to include age restrictions to prevent child sexual abuse imagery being generated.
“This has resulted in hundreds of thousands of sexualised images of women and children, proliferating on X. According to one study, up to 6,700 sexually suggestive or notifying images are being created every hour by Grok.
“This isn’t just horrifying and shocking – it is illegal under the Child Trafficking and Pornography Act.
“Why has the response from your Government to this scandal been so muted and confusing?”
She pressed: “What is the Government’s position, and why are we not seeing criminal investigations into production and distribution of these child abuse images?
“Can you tell us why is a company that has facilitated the creation and publication of child sexual abuse images being treated with kid gloves by this Government?”
Mr Martin said the issue was “outrageous, shocking” and vowed that the Government will deal with it.
He said the Attorney General is providing advice, and he is convening a meeting of relevant Government ministers.
“There’s existing legislation, there’s the AI Act, which may not cover all aspects of this, and I want a rigorous examination of that, and then if there are any gaps at all in the law, for those to be addressed quickly.
“It’s a very serious issue. We have to engage with the platforms.
“It is about protecting our children, protecting women and protecting citizens generally, from unacceptable images, unacceptable activity and manipulation of AI tools for wrong purposes.
“We have to be very clear and forthright with the platforms in respect of this.
“It’s outrageous, shocking, and we will deal with it as a Government.
“This is a fast moving area, we want to make absolutely sure that all angles are covered, and that we do with this robustly.”
Mr Martin also said he is not aware of a specific investigation yet by gardaí, but said ministers were not alerted to every investigation.
Earlier, Minister for Further and Higher Education James Lawless said Grok is particularly challenging to tackle as it is not the “primary tool”, rather it is part of a “publication tool”.
He said: “It’s very unexpected how it came about, but I think that we’re not alone in finding this a challenge.”
As legislators, we need to get on top of this very quickly
Speaking to reporters ahead of a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Mr Lawless said legislation that can deal with “cases that aren’t even envisaged yet” is needed as “technology will always evolve”.
He said: “I don’t think Ireland is any better or worse than any other country in that regard.
“I think that the world struggled with this.”
He added: “As legislators, we need to get on top of this very quickly.”
Mr Lawless also said the EU Artificial Intelligence Act, which is currently being introduced, would be an “opportunity” to help regulate the industry.
