The Minister in charge of artificial intelligence (AI) is to seek guidance from the Attorney General before meeting executives at X on Friday.
Niamh Smyth welcomed moves by the social media platform to further restrict the controversial Grok app, but said she wanted “absolute confidence” on legal issues before engaging with the company.
On Thursday, X said the Grok AI function would no longer allow users to manipulate photos of people, so they would appear in revealing clothing, in places where this was illegal.
X bowed to pressure following deepening controversy and safety concerns from UK regulators.
It comes as Independent MEP Michael McNamara, the new Rapporteur of the European Parliament on a key AI law, said he would use his role to lobby for a bloc-wide ban on so-called “nudification” apps.
Ms Smyth, Minister of State with responsibility for AI, welcomed the “corrective action” X had taken, but re-emphasised that “up to now X was breaking the law.”
Speaking on the RTÉ News at One programme, she said officials in her department had confirmed such action had been taken by the tech company.
“I met with the Taoiseach yesterday, but I am meeting the AG [Attorney General] this afternoon because I want to have the absolute confidence that there are no loopholes here for X or any other platform,” she said.
It follows a meeting with Coimisiun na Mean, the media regulator, on Wednesday, during which, she said, they had discussed the technology behind the issue.
She said X had developed the app in two different formats: a stand-alone app and one placed on the X platform, “which of course has given them very, very far-reaching traffic to have Grok disseminated as far and as widely as possible”.
The Minister said the function was in breach of legislation already in place in Ireland.
“As I said, I’m glad that it’s taken the corrective action that is absolutely required within this jurisdiction,” she said.
Ms Smyth said she would encourage the chair of the Oireachtas Media Committee, Alan Kelly, to ensure X officials appeared before it alongside other social media platforms next month.
“They are accountable to the media committee, they’re accountable to me, they’re accountable to the Government,” she 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.”
Mr McNamara, the Ireland South MEP, is to be responsible for leading negotiations to simplify the European Union’s AI Bill.
As it stands the EU bill does not explicitly ban so-called deepfakes – which are AI-generated images or videos – but does clarify that such content would need to be clearly labelled as AI-generated.
Mr McNamara said he would be proposing that “so-called nudification apps be prohibited across all member states by EU law”.
He told The Irish Times he believed existing legislation did not go far enough.
Mr McNamara said it was not clear if generating the images with AI was prohibited.
“At present the law is far from clear. Whereas the online dissemination of such images may be unlawful, their creation is not,” he said.