{"id":248768,"date":"2026-01-17T01:20:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-17T01:20:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/248768\/"},"modified":"2026-01-17T01:20:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-17T01:20:08","slug":"concerns-remain-around-grok-despite-xs-assurances-says-minister-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/248768\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Concerns remain\u2019 around Grok despite X\u2019s assurances, says Minister \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Social<\/a> network X<\/a>, 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<\/a> (AI).<\/p>\n

Speaking after a meeting with officials from X on Friday, Minister of State Niamh Smyth<\/a> said the Elon Musk<\/a>-owned network, which hosts AI app Grok<\/a>, told her it has halted the AI model\u2019s ability to remove or reduce clothing on individuals worldwide. <\/p>\n

The meeting took place following political criticism over the \u201cnudification\u201d pictures that Grok allows users to create.<\/p>\n

She said the social network did not take responsibility for the content created by the app. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhat they took responsibility for was the dissemination of illegal material on the platform of X, through the app of Grok,\u201d Ms Smyth said. <\/p>\n

Ms Smyth said it was her clear understanding that the type of content generated by Grok \u201cis illegal here in Ireland\u201d. <\/p>\n

Officials from X had conceded that its social network had hosted content that is illegal in Ireland, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere 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.\u201d Ms Smyth told RT\u00c9 Radio 1\u2019s Drivetime programme<\/p>\n

She cited three pieces of legislation \u201cthat prohibits that type of content being available to the public\u201d.<\/p>\n

Ms Smyth also met media regulator Coimisi\u00fan na Me\u00e1n<\/a> this week. She hinted that she may expect the regulator to take action against Grok soon. <\/p>\n

\u201cMy 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,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, chair of the Oireachtas media committee, Labour<\/a>\u2019s Alan Kelly<\/a>, expressed \u201cdeep concern\u201d at X\u2019s refusal to appear before the committee. He said Instagram<\/a> owner Meta<\/a> and TikTok<\/a> have agreed to appear before the committee\u2019s members next February 4th. <\/p>\n

\u201cI would urge X executives to rethink this … The attitude adopted by X is deeply concerning,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cX 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,\u201d Mr Kelly added.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Elon Musk\u2019s X restricts Grok photo editing amid concerns about sexualised imagesOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Earlier, Minister for Media Patrick O\u2019Donovan<\/a> said there may be a legal \u201cloophole\u201d for AI models that generate intimate images of women.<\/p>\n

Mr O\u2019Donovan said it needed to be clarified if Grok broke the law when creating intimate images of real women without their consent. <\/p>\n

Since 2020, under Coco\u2019s Law, it has been illegal in Ireland to share an intimate image of someone without their consent. <\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

Such an image would be similar to some of the \u201cnudification\u201d pictures Grok has created, by editing images of real women to make it appear that they are in their underwear.<\/p>\n

But while the law bans sharing of such images it does not appear to criminalise the generation of the images.<\/p>\n

Asked if it could be the case that while sharing such images was a crime, generating them was not, Mr O\u2019Donovan said: \u201cIt could be.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is one of the points that we\u2019re going to obviously discuss further with the Minister for Justice, who is the responsible Minister with regard to the legislation that is Coco\u2019s Law,\u201d Mr O\u2019Donovan told RT\u00c9 Radio\u2019s Today with David McCullagh. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a point that needs further clarification.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr O\u2019Donovan added that if AI was used to generate an image of a fictional \u201ccompletely AI-generated person\u201d, there may be a legal loophole. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd, if there is, that loophole will be closed,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

It is understood Coimisi\u00fan na Me\u00e1n and the European Commission<\/a> have been trying to gather digital evidence of any illegal images that may have been created by Grok. <\/p>\n

An Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na<\/a> confirmed this week it is carrying out 200 investigations into alleged child sexual abuse-related images that were generated by Grok. <\/p>\n

Ms Smyth had previously said she believed X was breaking Irish and European law, because they were \u201cfacilitating\u201d the dissemination of \u201cshocking, shocking, outrageous images\u201d.<\/p>\n

When Ms Smyth\u2019s quotes were played back to him, Mr O\u2019Donovan cited the Garda investigation and said: \u201cLet\u2019s leave the matter of criminal liability here to the police force of the State.\u201d<\/p>\n

This week, the AI Advisory Council called on the Government<\/a> to use its presidency of the European Union in the second half of this year to advocate for an EU-wide ban on \u201cdeepfakes\u201d \u2013 false, deceptive and harmful images or videos of people that are generated with AI. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Social network X, which has its European headquarters in Dublin, has conceded that it hosted content that is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":248769,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[8938,218,3584,605,1712,4069,42,542,6189,1226,43,124078,6232,58,6116,40,38,41,39,606],"class_list":{"0":"post-248768","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-alan-kelly","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-coimisiun-na-mean","11":"tag-elon-musk","12":"tag-european-commission","13":"tag-grok","14":"tag-headlines","15":"tag-instagram","16":"tag-labour-party","17":"tag-meta","18":"tag-news","19":"tag-niamh-smyth","20":"tag-patrick-o-donovan","21":"tag-social-media","22":"tag-tiktok","23":"tag-top-news","24":"tag-top-stories","25":"tag-topnews","26":"tag-topstories","27":"tag-x"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248768","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=248768"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248768\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/248769"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248768"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248768"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248768"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}