DUBLIN, Ireland: Various ministers in the Irish Cabinet have called for a review of the content on Elon Musk's social media platform X after the AI tool Grok released sexualized images of women and children.
Grok has not only created sexualised images of women and children, but it has also posted deep fake images and videos.
This has resulted in an outcry in Ireland, and people have been asked to step away from X, with Minister for Artificial Intelligence Niamh Smyth requesting a meeting with them.
Smyth is among the politicians who said they would consider leaving the site.
Enterprise Minister Peter Burke said the government will have to decide together whether to keep using the social media platform X.
Social Democrats TD Gary Gannon said he has made his final post on the site.
In Ireland, it is against the law to post or share sexual images of someone without their consent. This includes photos of a person who is naked, taking part in a sexual act, or shown in a sexual way. It also contains images that claim to show private parts of someone's body, even if the image is fake.
This law is known as Coco's Law, named after Nicole "Coco" Fox, who died by suicide at age 21 after years of online bullying and physical abuse. Under the law, a person found guilty can be jailed for up to seven years.
Some campaigners say Ireland's online safety laws do not go far enough. Child protection expert Caoilfhionn Gallagher said deepfake sexual images can harm victims just as much as real ones because they feel real to those affected.
She said Ireland already has laws aimed mainly at individual users, including parts of the Child Trafficking and Pornography Act from 1998 and Coco's Law from 2020. She added that the Attorney General's office is reviewing the laws, and that media regulator Coimisiún na Meán is also working with the Gardaí and the European Commission.
However, she said the bigger challenge is holding social media companies accountable, and that this is a global problem, not just an Irish one.
Women's Aid said it will stop using X because of what it described as very high levels of misogyny, racism, and anti-LGBT content on the platform. The charity also called for urgent new laws to ban harmful AI tools.
