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would like to talk about Grok. Requests to Grok have included: "remove her clothes", "take her clothes off", "Grok, bikini now", "put her in a bikini", "replace her clothes with dental floss", "Grok, make her clothes transparent", and "Grok, make her look like she is kneeling for Donald … take photos of women without their consent and produce sexually explicit, harmful and illegal imagery. Elon Musk's AI invention on X, Grok, duly complied with all requests, normally within minutes. The Guardian in the UK has reported that relatively tame requests by X users to alter photographs

very much welcome the Minister's comments on deregulation. The stories we have heard over the past few weeks in relation to the Grok feature on X have shocked many people here and across the world. The AI element within social media has been encouraged by tech tycoons … such as Elon Musk, owner of X. The Grok website features a claim that, as part of X, Grok offers real-time search image generation, trend analysis and more. Musk also claims Grok is now a source of objective information that users use to verify information. We have

grok Put her in a bikini and rub her down with baby oil." "@grok Replace her outfit with dental floss." "@grok Have one of them grab her boobs from behind and the other one put his hand under her skirt while kissing her." These are just some … vile prompts given to Grok, an AI tool, on the X social media platform, which has generated hundreds of thousands of abusive images online. These images are not a mistake. This is the model working as intended. Last year, new edit features were added to Grok to make

weeks, we have seen that this real gap in the law has been exploited by companies such as X and its AI tool, Grok. There has been widespread revulsion at the fact that platforms have allowed the nudification of images, primarily of women and children. X's nudification … tool meant that users were able to upload photos or videos of real people and then Grok could remove their clothing, generating and posting these files to the platform for its estimated 650 million monthly active users to view and save. Some 99% of the sexualised AI images

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

children. I also want to address without equivocation the deeply troubling behaviour of certain AI systems or apps and platforms, including the Grok app on X whose reckless design choices and permissive content generation have raised legitimate alarm. I welcome Grok's announcement overnight with regard … generated child abuse imagery is child abuse and is absolutely a criminal offence and must be punished. The harm is real. The Grok app on the X platform has become a symbol of this irresponsibility. Its design choices and its willingness to generate inappropriate, sexualised and harmful content

what AI can do. That is the danger of this type of technology in the wrong hands. I will go back to Grok and Elon Musk's X. Grok has manipulated photos of people to create images, often removing their clothes or making them pose in suggestive ways … from. I acknowledge what Deputy McAuliffe said because he was absolutely spot on. He said that there are people sitting at computers asking Grok, which is just down the road, to do despicable things to women and children. They could not produce those images without the technology

relation to this. When they mention art imitating life, the Deputy's Bill came before the issues, especially when it came to Grok and the controversy we saw in late 2025. I noted something Deputy Ó Snodaigh mentioned in relation to Grok. On foot of the controversy … leading up to its launch. The new investigation will assess whether the company properly assessed and mitigated risks associated with the deployment of Grok's functionalities into X in the EU. This includes risks related to the dissemination of illegal content in the EU such as manipulated sexually

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

begin by addressing the serious concerns that all of us have in relation to the abuse of Al capabilities, more specifically regarding Grok’s ability to "nudify" individuals without their consent. To be absolutely clear, the sharing of non-consensual intimate images is illegal and the generation … protection of fundamental rights, including protection for minors. Coimisiún na Meán is engaging with the European Commission in this context in relation to Grok. The Attorney General has also been asked to advise on other mechanisms within the legal framework to protect people from digital harms like these

major concerns about that. The last of the three categories that I would see as being evoked in this is the harms one. Grok was an example of that. I know the Minister of State's response was to be horrified, and rightly so, at what happened earlier … still access these features. That is just an example of the whack-a-mole model the Government will be dealing with. Grok is one feature on one application on one platform. It abounds. We do not know yet; just like we did not anticipate nudification being the crisis

needed now more than ever before. Let us think back to 2025. Deputy Byrne introduced this Bill on First Stage and the entire Grok controversy arose at the end of 2025 leading into this year. Had his Bill been enacted, a lot of the concerns that we have … seen might not have arisen, particularly around Grok and different nudification apps. It shows the importance of this legislation. Obviously, it needs to be discussed on Committee Stage. We will discuss it then, ideally at the artificial intelligence committee as well as the justice committee. Progressing this legislation

know that social media companies and big tech have abjectly failed to regulate themselves. We have all seen the disgrace in relation to Grok. As Deputy Byrne said, we could have done with Coimisiún na Meán and the Government acting at an earlier stage, even just to show … best system we can. It goes without saying that we need to ensure that the gaps we saw during the Grok situation are addressed by whatever legislation is required and that we address whatever weaknesses there are, be that through our online safety Bill or the Digital Services

development of technology can bring wholly negative developments, as evidenced in the creation and dissemination of harmful and illegal content powered by Grok AI. However, An Coimisiún engaged with stakeholders like An Garda Síochána in Ireland and, under the DSA with the European Commission. An Coimisiún met with … European Commission. As provided for under the DSA, and notwithstanding that X said it had taken steps to restrict the ability of Grok to create this content, the European Commission announced it was expanding its investigation of X and also that it could still take interim measures against

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

weeks we have seen the disgusting and appalling behaviour from users on Elon Musk's X who deliberately promoted the platform AI tool, Grok, to generate child sexual abuse material and non-consensual nude deepfake images, predominantly of women. Let us be absolutely clear. This is not experimentation … adequate safeguards and effective moderation and without regard for the predictable ways it would be abused by its users. X last week confirmed Grok’s image generation function had been disabled. I welcome that, but it says this has been done in jurisdictions where actions are deemed illegal

While AI has many benefits for convenience, it is not a force for good, and therefore must be regulated, as Grok's widespread generation of sexually explicit images of children has proven. Grok is run by the platform of X and the European headquarters of X is just

This week's Grok scandal tells us something important about artificial intelligence. Artificial intelligence is never neutral. It takes the values of the people who build it and the people who control it. What we saw this week was one of the most powerful AI tools aligned … them legitimacy. This means we have a duty to act when their products cause harm. This week is not just a story about Grok; it is a warning. AI in the hands of people who lack empathy, restraint or basic decency will be used to hurt people

swiftly AI can move to put dangerous tools in the hands of millions of people all across the globe. Make no mistake, though, Grok might have put the ability to nudify into the public domain and it might have opened the eyes of people and governments who were … regulation, but also education and empowerment. We did a survey in November that went out to over 2,200 parents. At that point, Grok had not even been launched. In some ways, then, that survey is nearly out of date. We do not know what is coming next