The Minister for Artificial Intelligence has urged Irish people to boycott X and ‘give a message to Elon Musk’ over the dissemination of deepfake non-consensual sexual images.
In recent days, people have asked X’s AI chatbot Grok to generate images of people in sexually suggestive positions or without clothes on.
The images are considered ‘deepfakes’, as they are highly realistic and created without the consent of the person whose likeness they capture.
On Newstalk Breakfast, AI Minister Niamh Smyth called for the images to be taken down.
“Of course, within the Irish legal system and the European legal system, it is illegal to do that,” she said.
“So, I suppose I've heard a lot of debate over the last 24 hours about strengthening our laws and ensuring that they're robust.”
The Fianna Fáil TD has sought a meeting to discuss the matter with X, whose European Headquarters is in Dublin.
However, although they are located just a short drive away from Leinster House, Minister Symth said the company was hard to get hold of.
“It is not acceptable, it is abhorrent and it should be stopped,” she continued.
“I mean, X have their own safety measures in place too and they're breaking their own guidelines in terms of what is safe to disseminate among the public on the platform itself as well.
“So, I mean, I have written to Twitter or to X, they're a little bit elusive here in Ireland and a little bit difficult to pin down.
“But we have written to them to seek a meeting with them.”
A person using the app X. Picture by: Alamy.com.Minister Symth predicted a “mass exodus” from the platform in the coming days and that she would be deleting her own account.
“As you know, the Taoiseach is abroad but when he comes back, I would certainly hope we would sit down and take a more whole of Government approach on this,” she said.
“But I know colleagues, myself included, some have already said publicly - TDs and Ministers - that they will leave X, I will myself too.
“I think it is perhaps one of the most influential ways that we can give a message to X and Elon Musk that it is not acceptable to have the dissemination of explicit images of children or women online in any shape or form.”
In a statement, X said, “We take action against illegal content on X, including Child Sexual Abuse Material, by removing it, permanently suspending accounts, and working with local governments and law enforcement as necessary.”
The platform added that people who use Grok to create illegal AI images would “suffer the same consequences as if they upload illegal content”.
Main image: A split of Niamh Smyth and Elon Musk. Pictures by: Rolling News and Alamy.com.
