FINE GAEL MEP Nina Carberry has added her voice to calls for the European Commission to suspend X’s AI tool Grok across the EU if it continues to host AI-generated sexualised images of children and adults.

“A platform that repeatedly flouts EU law should not be allowed to operate in the European Union,” the Midlands North West MEP said today. 

The former champion jockey has written to the Commission to ask “why the EU is not currently using all the weapons in its arsenal”.

“Under Article 70 of the Digital Services Act, Europe can suspend platforms like Grok when they breach EU law.

“We take cars off the road when they fail the NCT. If someone is caught drunk driving, they are disqualified. We should treat online platforms the same way when they fail to remove child sexual abuse material,” Carberry said.

Her comments come as politicians internationally scramble to respond to the scandal that has engulfed Elon Musk’s social media platform.

Back in Dublin, Taoiseach Micheál Martin will today meet with Minister of State for AI Niamh Smyth to discuss the matter, with a further meeting between ministers and the Attorney General due to take place in the coming days to explore whether further laws are needed in the area.

This afternoon, a senior garda is to tell the Oireachtas media committee that reports of the creation of child sexual abuse material and intimate image abuse with AI are being treated with “the utmost seriousness” and will be the subject of thorough investigation where appropriate. 

The committee meeting comes amid harsh criticism of the government’s response to abusive images being generated by X’s Grok.

Detective Chief Superintendent Barry Walsh has not named X or Grok directly in an opening statement seen by The Journal, but he will say that “the recent use of an AI app” to create such images “can only be regarded as an abhorrent disregard of personal dignity”.

Walsh will also describe the conduct as “an abuse of societal trust that simply can not be tolerated as a normal operating procedure.”

Minister of State Niamh Smyth has said that if X fails to abide by the law, it should be banned. 

“My own view is if X are not going to abide by the laws here in Ireland, yes, it should be banned,” she told RTÉ’s Prime Time.

“I have disabled my account, and I know many of my colleagues in Government have also disabled their accounts,” she said, adding, “I have no doubt that the Taoiseach, along with his Cabinet colleagues, will take a collective decision on this in the very near future”.

Today’s committee meeting will focus on the regulation of online platforms and online safety. 

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“Unfortunately, from An Garda Síochána’s perspective, what is being encountered is ever-increasing levels of child sexual abuse material being produced, distributed and accessed online,” Walsh will tell the committee. 

He will also question why “robust age verification” is not standard for access to pornography online. 

In December, Communications Minister Patrick O’Donovan announced that the government will commence a pilot programme of a “digital wallet” this year.

Detective Walsh’s contribution to today’s committee will also touch on the proliferation of misinformation and disinformation online, with specific reference to how it has led to violence at anti-immigrant demonstrations and riots. 

Other contributors at today’s committee meeting will include representatives from Media Literacy Ireland, Hope and Courage Collective and the Institute for Strategic Dialogue.

With reporting from Jane Matthews