AI Minister to meet X on Friday to discuss sexualised Grok deepfakes

Ottoline Spearman

AI Minister Niamh Smyth is set to meet X on Friday after receiving legal advice from the Attorney General.

The meeting comes after Elon Musk's AI chatbot Grok came under fire for producing explicit images of people, including women and children.

On Thursday, X confirmed that it is disabling Grok's ability to undress images of real people, following a global backlash.

But the Government is under increasing fire for not acting quickly enough.

Speaking on Newstalk, Social Democrat TD Sinead Gibney said: "I have to commend Niamh Smith for... cajoling the government into action, because out of all of the relevant ministers and spokespeople, she is the person who is pushing this the hardest.

"I don't think the government is yet doing enough. We're two weeks into this debacle, and nothing has actually arrived at the door of X."

On Wednesday, it emerged that over 200 potential child sex abuse images made using the AI chatbot were being investigated by gardaí.

On Thursday, Ms Smyth told the Dáil that X “will face the full rigours of the law” over its Grok nudification tool, reported the Irish Times.

Ms Smyth said the State has sufficient legislation in place to deal with the manipulation of photos.

The big tech companies have been invited to attend a meeting of the Oireachtas media committee on February 4th, with Ms Smyth saying “it is critically important that they present themselves in front of our legislators”.

She said there are three “very robust laws in place” to deal with Grok and similar apps. “We have Coco’s law, we have the Child Trafficking and Pornography Act. We also have the online safety Act.”

“The law makes it very clear to me ... it is illegal in this country to create these images. It is illegal in this country to possess these images. It is illegal in this country to disseminate these images. And it is illegal in this country to share these images.”