Search the record

sorry, that is not what is happening. It is deregulation. If these tech companies are drowning in that much regulation, how has Grok happened? That is my simple question. How has Grok happened and how have we seen such a failure to deal with it? The reality still … exists that, right now, people can access the nudification feature on Grok. Despite the Minister of State's own efforts and her incredibly strong messaging on this, despite the investigations that are ongoing by An Garda Síochána and despite the co-operation of Coimisiún na Mean

life. Nearly 40% of children aged eight to 12 use these platforms. The most common age to start using social media is 13. Grok is a generative AI tool from the company owned by the bizarre millionaire, soon to be trillionaire, Elon Musk. Grok's image generation tool … investigate it; and increase the maximum penalties upon conviction to better reflect the heinous nature of these digital crimes. In the week since Grok's nudification functionality was switched on, numerous Government TDs and Ministers have rightly expressed outrage and demanded this issue be taken seriously

appears to be see no evil, hear no evil. When Deputy Boyd Barrett asked the Taoiseach if those in X responsible for enabling Grok to produce sexual abuse imagery would be arrested, he scoffed at the idea. He suggested that to do so would be like 1984. Yesterday … engagement with X since this scandal broke. After she met X representatives, she put out a press release repeating X's claim that "Grok, as integrated on the X platform, has been disabled from removing or reducing clothing on individuals worldwide." I asked the Minister of State whether

State’s role in terms of the leadership that she provided on this. We have dealt a lot with the controversy involving Grok and she has been very clear-minded and focused in that area. When she came before us that on the first occasion prior to report … permanent footing because the issues in the debates that we are dealing with and that we are facing is not just Grok. It is about what is happening in the employment market; the opportunities that are happening in healthcare; and the implications of AI energy

Have we finally found a use for Grok? This is where we are going with this - seriously. As I look around the room, the Minister is probably the most qualified legal person in here, I would suspect. How did we get to this point on Committee Stage, after … civil society through citizens information? Is this where we are going or, as Deputy Gannon has said, is it to be the Groks of this world? How do we define it? Under the asylum procedure Regulation 2024/1348 providers and counselling can be provided by accredited civil society organisations

images that purport to be intimate images but it does not explicitly state that generating intimate images of an adult is illegal. The Grok nudification scandal exposed this loophole that should never have been allowed to remain open. Grok, X's nudification tool as it is now being

what colleagues have said. I will turn now to the concrete steps that the Government has taken to address the use of Grok. As I indicated earlier, under the Digital Services Act, the European Commission is responsible for oversight. On 26 January 2026 the Commission decided to launch … formal investigation under the Digital Services Act into X and its Grok Al tool. The Government welcomes this decision, and I want to highlight that Coimisiún na Meán is formally involved with the European Commission in this investigation and was instrumental in the work leading

respond to the crisis in which we now find ourselves. Let us recap on that crisis and what has happened with Grok over the last number of months. An unsafe product, a nudification app, was unleashed on the market. That is the marketing terminology but the legal terminology … What is not happening is any meaningful results for those people who have been harmed by this product. We have had geoblocking from Grok itself, which is, first of all, too little and far too late, but is also something that anybody with VPN can get around

state that the generation or creation of deepfake sexual images of adults is illegal. This must be remedied immediately. We witnessed the Grok controversy in December and January. Researchers estimated that 6,700 sexually suggestive nudified images were created hourly. These mainly depicted women, children and young girls … sacrosanct human rights. As if that was not bad enough, after a huge backlash, instead of removing such a base tool, X hid Grok behind a paywall rather removing it. The French have taken action, along with the UK's Ofcom, and have launched an investigation and raided

conflate the omnibus Bill, which is efforts in relation to innovation, and the protection against harm in the deployment of AI by mentioning Grok and everything related to it. The reality is that, when Coimisiún na Meán came before the joint Oireachtas AI committee last week, it supported

been breaches of the law. On 26 January the European Commission announced the commencement of an investigation into X and the use of Grok to generate and disseminate illegal content under the Digital Services Act. Coimisiún na Meán collaborated closely with the Commission in its preparation

than enough adequate Irish laws for it to use to step up and face down social media companies when harmful AI tools like Grok are used. The Minister mentioned Coimisiún na Meán extensively in his response. Coimisiún na Meán could use the Online Safety Media Regulation Act today

ensure they are enacted with the full rigour they can be in order that we will not have a repeat of the Grok scandal

required now; not next year, not after another review, but now. During the period from 29 December 2025 through to 9 January 2026, Grok is estimated to have generated approximately 3 million sexualised images, including 23,000 that appear to depict children. Let us be absolutely clear

clearly a loophole in the Act. The Government's failure to introduce relevant legislation has become clear in recent months, particularly following the Grok nudification scandal. This Sinn Féin Bill will amend Coco's Law by making three straightforward changes. It will explicitly criminalise the non-consensual creation

actions taken in recent weeks by some individuals regarding Grok AI were deplorable and a response from this House is absolutely necessary. This Bill will address the lacuna that exists within current legislation to cover the generation of intimate images through the use of AI. Zero tolerance should

Teachtaí Devine agus Carthy, as ucht an Bille seo a chur os ár gcomhair. Cuirim fáilte roimh na cuairteoirí atá sa Ghailearaí. The Grok scandal has been the stuff of nightmares, showing us what a dystopian, misogynistic hellscape the Internet can be, its owners conniving villains willing

recent public concerns and considerable political debate arising from the launching by X, on Christmas Day 2025, of a feature powered by Grok to allow editing of images. This feature was used at scale to create harmful and illegal content, in particular the nudification of people, including children

held to account. We heard last month from the gardaí that they are investigating around 200 cases of sexual abuse material from the Grok AI tool alone. That is an enormous amount of work, especially when one considers that the overwhelming majority of these accounts posting this material

catch up with. Only today, Ireland's Online Safety Commissioner said she was "horrified" by what she saw when testing the AI system Grok. She was horrified that it could generate sexualised, degrading images of people who never consented and never could consent. That is not a campaign

information about how many children are using their services and have admitted to refusing to building in the necessary safety to the design. Grok is not alone in the production of this material. Merlio AI, Soulgen, nudify-online, undress AI, DreamGF, deepnude.cc, Promptchan AI and Candy.ai all facilitate

maximum penalties upon conviction. Government inaction has left a clear gap in the Harassment, Harmful Communications and Related Offences Act 2020. The recent Grok nudification scandal shows the consequences. A total of 85% of generated images were sexualised and during the Christmas period, an estimated 3 million sexualised

Smyth, at the AI committee last week. The dogs in the street know big tech cannot be trusted. We have all endured the Grok scandal over the past number of weeks. A recent "Prime Time Investigates" programme reported on how our location data is being sold. Despite

deliberate conflation of a different series of events to give the impression that the Government somehow condones the behaviour of X, Grok or Elon Musk. That is reprehensible political behaviour by him but it is par for the course all the time to distort the actual truth

take criminal action, as is happening in France. Are the Garda investigations into X as opposed to people who may have used Grok to produce those images? Those people may well be liable for prosecution and should be prosecuted, which is fine. Is the investigation into X itself