"@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 of the 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 it easy to undress people in photographs. Incredibly, apparently no thought was given to how this tool would be used and weaponised against women. The company did not even bother to include age restrictions to prevent child sexual abuse imagery being generated. This has resulted in hundreds of thousands of sexualised images of women and children proliferating on X. According to one study, up to 6,700 sexually suggestive or nudifying images were being created every hour by Grok. This is not just horrifying and shocking; it is illegal under the Child Trafficking and Pornography Act.

Professor Conor O'Mahony, former special rapporteur on child protection and dean of the school of law at UCC, has been clear about this. According to him, the definition of child abuse image material in the Act is broad enough to cover real images, manipulated deepfakes and entirely fake images, and, crucially, the potential for prosecution is not limited to those who create or share child abuse material. Offences under the Act can be committed by companies. This means that a company like xAI, which is facilitating the creation and distribution of child abuse material, can be prosecuted here. The real question is why that is not happening. Why has the response from the Government to this scandal been so muted and confusing? The communications Minister, Deputy Patrick O'Donovan, has stated responsibility for the creation of these disgusting images lies with users rather than the company. Meanwhile, the Minister of State with responsibility for AI, Deputy Niamh Smyth, has said X is breaking the law. She also said enforcement action should be taken against X and Grok.

Which is it? What is the Government’s position? Why are we not seeing criminal investigations into the production and distribution of these child abuse images? We know that the Trump Administration has a close relationship with X and Elon Musk. Is that the reason the Government is unwilling to protect women and children and enforce its own laws - the fears of pushback from the Trump Administration? If that is not the reason, can the Taoiseach tell us why a company that is facilitating the creation and publication of child sexual abuse images is being treated with kid gloves by the Government?

First of all, I thank the Deputy for raising the issue because it is a very grave and serious issue that the Government will respond to. In terms of specific prosecutions, as the Deputy knows, gardaí investigate any breaches of the law or any criminal activity, and the DPP decides whether prosecutions take place or not. I believe the public should report these incidents in the first instance to An Garda Síochána so the full range of the law can be applied.

I have asked the Attorney General, and the Attorney General is providing advices. I am convening a meeting of a number of Government Ministers who are relevant to this issue with the Attorney General. There is existing legislation. There is the AI Act, which may not cover all aspects of this. I want a rigorous examination of that, and then, if there are any gaps at all in the law, and there may be, for those to be addressed quickly.

It is a very serious issue, and one on which we have to engage with the platforms. The friendship of any owner of the platform with anybody else is irrelevant to the Government’s consideration of this. It is about protecting our children, protecting women and protecting citizens generally from unacceptable images, unacceptable activity and manipulation of AI tools for wrong purposes. We have to be very clear and forthright with the platforms in respect of this. It is not just Grok or AI tools. It is in respect of any platform that, in any shape or form, facilitates abusive images to be portrayed on that platform, or any illegal material. We have to be ruthless across the board in respect of these issues to protect our people.

There is zero necessity for this. It is outrageous and shocking. We will deal with it as a Government. Existing law enforcement should be applied. As the Deputy knows, we have the Digital Services Act. The European Commission has powers with respect to the proliferation of illegal content on online platforms, including X, and there is the protection of fundamental rights and protection for minors. Coimisiún na Meán has been established. The public can report illegal content to Coimisiún na Meán, which has to react. It is our online safety and media regulator, and is at the heart of the online safety framework here in Ireland. An Garda Síochána is also there. Reports can be made to the Irish national reporting centre at hotline.ie, and there are fines and so on. The AI Act is also there. We will examine it again because this is a fast-moving area in terms of the advance and movement of technology. We want to make absolutely sure that all angles are covered and that we deal with this robustly.

I thank the Taoiseach for his reply. I am aware that the Minister of State, Deputy Smyth, had said she would arrange a meeting with X. That did not exactly fill me with confidence in the first instance. On “Morning Ireland”, we heard the UCD law professor and chair of Digital Rights Ireland, T.J. McIntyre, say that an immediate criminal investigation was warranted. He said that if somebody set up a child abuse image producing factory on, for example, Fenian Street, and their name was not Elon Musk, they would have been raided by the gardaí long ago. It is safe to say that in that scenario, there would not be any kind of meeting with the Minister.

I am glad the Taoiseach acknowledged that we have existing laws in relation to this for companies. Not distributing child sexual abuse images is one that very clearly should be abided by.

It is welcome that the Taoiseach has spoken to the Attorney General. I wonder when that happened and when he plans to convene the meeting of the relevant Ministers. Is the Taoiseach aware of any kind of investigation already taking place?

The Minister of State, Deputy Niamh Smyth, has spoken very frankly and robustly to me in respect of this issue.

She clearly has very strong views on it and how we engage both with the platforms and how we should legally respond. Because there are a number of different Departments with responsibility for different dimensions of this, we want to develop and formulate a co-ordinated response that will be there on an ongoing basis to respond to issues that may arise from time to time as technology develops; as AI develops. I think that is sensible and it is the right thing to do.

In terms of the investigations, that is a matter for the investigating authorities and it always has been in respect of any illegality or breach of the law. I am not aware of a specific investigation yet by An Garda Síochána but it does not alert us to every investigation that takes place. It has to observe due process. I presume that is how this issue will be dealt with also.