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PROPOSALS WILL GO to Cabinet in a matter of weeks to deal with the issue of non-consensual images generated by AI, Tánaiste Simon Harris told the Dáil today.
Labour’s Alan Kelly said there is no time to waste in legislating for the issue, stating that people are getting hurt by image-based sexual abuse.
Kelly told Harris that Labour is proposing its own legislation, but said he hoped the opposition and government could work together to tackle the issue in a speedy manner.
The Labour TD and the Tánaiste commended former TV presenter and general election candidate Gráinne Seoige for speaking about her own experience yesterday in a hearing of the Oireachtas Media Committee.
The use of Grok and the use of AI to undress and produce nudified images is “dehumanising”, “degrading and it’s disgusting”, said Harris, who added that there is an onus on the House to respond.
“I commit today that the government will absolutely engage constructively with you in relation to your own bill,” Harris told Kelly.
To provide clarity, the Tánaiste said that under the current law, whether non-consensual images are AI-generated or not, it is illegal in Ireland under Coco’s law.
The latest figures show there’s been around 99 cases in respect of breaches of Coco’s Law, with 23 cases prosecuted on indictment in the Circuit Court.
Speaking about a meeting that government leaders and ministers convened this week with the Attorney General on the matter, Harris said Media Minister Patrick O’ Donovan and Minister of State Niamh Smyth are due to bring proposals forward to Cabinet “within the next few short weeks”.
The memo is expected to provide information, setting out the situation, including the criminal law remedies available.
The government is also set to follow the Advisory Councils advice, which has suggested that Ireland should seek the amendment of Article 5 of the AI Act by expanding it to include the prohibition of AI practices, which allow users to generate non-consensual, intimate images.
Harris said the European Commission must carry out an annual assessment of whether the Article 5 prohibited practice list should be amended and to report its finding to both the European Parliament and the Council.
While he said the government would seek to deal with this matter domestically by seeing what legislative changes may be required, Ireland will also work constructively on it at a European level.
Kelly responded by saying he was concerned about any delayed timelines, stating that robust legislation is needed now. His proposed bill would update the current Coco’s law to change the definition of intimate images, to include AI generated images, or computer generated images.
It also creates a new offence to create such an image of a person without the consent of the person whose image is created. And thirdly, borrowing from law on child sexual abuse, it makes it an offence to knowingly facilitate the generation of such images for the purposes of publication or sharing.
“This is critical legislation… I don’t care whether you take this bill and change it, improve it, whatever, but I’m calling on you as a government to engage with this legislation. We haven’t got time for this to go on and on and on,” concluded Kelly.
“I do not care where the idea comes from, or who has the good idea, or who has the best idea, we all want to do the same thing,” agreed Harris, stating that a report will go to government shortly.
Separately, People Before Profit also launched new legislation proposals which seeks to require social media platforms to turn off recommender algorithms for under 18s.
It would also require that recommender algorithms based on profiling or sensitive personal data have to be actively turned on by adult users.
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