Social network X, which has its European headquarters in Dublin, has conceded that it hosted content that is illegal in Ireland, according to the Minister with responsibility for artificial intelligence (AI).

Speaking after a meeting with officials from X on Friday, Minister of State Niamh Smyth said the Elon Musk-owned network, which hosts AI app Grok, told her it has halted the AI model’s ability to remove or reduce clothing on individuals worldwide.

The meeting took place following political criticism over the “nudification” pictures that Grok allows users to create.

She said the social network did not take responsibility for the content created by the app.

“What they took responsibility for was the dissemination of illegal material on the platform of X, through the app of Grok,” Ms Smyth said.

Ms Smyth said it was her clear understanding that the type of content generated by Grok “is illegal here in Ireland”.

Officials from X had conceded that its social network had hosted content that is illegal in Ireland, she said.

“There was an acceptance that the content that had been available on X since the 24th of December was not within the framework of Irish domestic laws.” Ms Smyth told RTÉ Radio 1’s Drivetime programme

She cited three pieces of legislation “that prohibits that type of content being available to the public”.

Ms Smyth also met media regulator Coimisiún na Meán this week. She hinted that she may expect the regulator to take action against Grok soon.

“My sense would be that we will see steps taken by the commission in days rather than weeks, in relation to what has unfolded over the last number of weeks,” she said.

Meanwhile, chair of the Oireachtas media committee, Labour’s Alan Kelly, expressed “deep concern” at X’s refusal to appear before the committee. He said Instagram owner Meta and TikTok have agreed to appear before the committee’s members next February 4th.

“I would urge X executives to rethink this … The attitude adopted by X is deeply concerning,” he said.

“X officials should have presented themselves to the committee, to give the public and legislators an understanding of what happened and what steps are being taken to safeguard against any form of inappropriate and illegal use of AI,” Mr Kelly added.

[ Elon Musk’s X restricts Grok photo editing amid concerns about sexualised imagesOpens in new window ]

Earlier, Minister for Media Patrick O’Donovan said there may be a legal “loophole” for AI models that generate intimate images of women.

Mr O’Donovan said it needed to be clarified if Grok broke the law when creating intimate images of real women without their consent.

Since 2020, under Coco’s Law, it has been illegal in Ireland to share an intimate image of someone without their consent.

The law was designed to include AI-generated images and the legislation also defines an intimate image as one where someone is depicted in their underwear.

Such an image would be similar to some of the “nudification” pictures Grok has created, by editing images of real women to make it appear that they are in their underwear.

But while the law bans sharing of such images it does not appear to criminalise the generation of the images.

Asked if it could be the case that while sharing such images was a crime, generating them was not, Mr O’Donovan said: “It could be.”

“This is one of the points that we’re going to obviously discuss further with the Minister for Justice, who is the responsible Minister with regard to the legislation that is Coco’s Law,” Mr O’Donovan told RTÉ Radio’s Today with David McCullagh.

“This is a point that needs further clarification.”

Mr O’Donovan added that if AI was used to generate an image of a fictional “completely AI-generated person”, there may be a legal loophole.

“And, if there is, that loophole will be closed,” he said.

Possession and distribution of child sex-abuse material is illegal in Ireland. Grok has been accused of generating child sex-abuse material through the undressing function on its app.

It is understood Coimisiún na Meán and the European Commission have been trying to gather digital evidence of any illegal images that may have been created by Grok.

An Garda Síochána confirmed this week it is carrying out 200 investigations into alleged child sexual abuse-related images that were generated by Grok.

Ms Smyth had previously said she believed X was breaking Irish and European law, because they were “facilitating” the dissemination of “shocking, shocking, outrageous images”.

When Ms Smyth’s quotes were played back to him, Mr O’Donovan cited the Garda investigation and said: “Let’s leave the matter of criminal liability here to the police force of the State.”

This week, the AI Advisory Council called on the Government to use its presidency of the European Union in the second half of this year to advocate for an EU-wide ban on “deepfakes” – false, deceptive and harmful images or videos of people that are generated with AI.