Minister welcomes X's 'corrective' action, but says they were breaking the law
Kenneth Fox
Minister of State with special responsibility for Trade Promotion, Artificial Intelligence and Digitalisation Niamh Smyth has welcomed the “corrective action” taken by social media platform X about Grok AI. Still, she emphasised that “up to now X was breaking the law.”
There were “robust” laws already in Ireland, she told RTÉ radio’s News at One.
Ms Smyth said that if anything were to happen again, she would immediately take action. She added that she would be meeting with X officials on Friday.
When asked if X had already implemented this corrective action, the Minister said officials in her department had told her that such action had been taken
“I met with the Taoiseach, but I am meeting with the AG this afternoon because I want to have the absolute confidence that there are no loopholes here for X or any other platform, because having met with Coimisiún na Meán we had a very in-depth meeting as opposed to the technology that's behind this and how X have come around this and how they've used and developed this app in two different formats.
"One as an app on its own, but secondly as an app that they have infiltrated on their X platform, which of course has given them very, very far-reaching traffic to have Grok disseminated as far and as widely as possible
“But as I said from the outset, in my mind, we have the online safety media regulation bill. We have Coco's law, we have Child Trafficking and Pornography Act 1998.
"All of those give me the confidence to know that X has been breaking the law up to this point. As I said, I'm glad that it's taken the corrective action that is absolutely required within this jurisdiction.
Ms Smyth said she would encourage the chair of the Oireachtas Media Committee, Alan Kelly, to ensure that X officials do appear, with all other platforms, before the committee on February 4th.
“They are accountable to the media committee, they're responsible to me, they're responsible to the government. I said, while X and Grok has been the topic of conversation over the last number of weeks, we want to be certain that our children, that our citizens, men and women, are protected while online. And I am certainly striving towards ensuring that that is the case into the future
“It is my ambition, when I'm in this department and with this responsibility of AI that we have AI for positive use within the country, within enterprise, within education, and many other industries, but not for anything with nudity apps or the awful stuff that we've seen that is possible with Grok.
"That is not what AI is intended for. And the new AI Act, which I am introducing, along with the AI Office, will ensure that high risk harmful content, damaging apps, damaging technology like that, that is of no value to any citizen in our country, young or old, will not be allowed to continue in this country.”
