Those who are opposed to regulatory restrictions on the creation and generation of sexualised AI images argue that this an affront to free speech and freedom of expression. It is not. It is not a freedom to use without consent someone's image to generate sexualised images. It is not freedom to ask an AI tool to show a picture of somebody and to have the picture modified to remove the clothing from the image of their body. That is sexual. That is harassment. Often those who cry about free speech were not so loud or mostly were extremely quiet when it came to section 31 of the Broadcasting Act banning members of my party from the airwaves. One party member was not allowed to talk about mushrooms on a farming programme. Larry O'Toole could not speak on behalf of striking workers. I was 27 years old before I heard a member of my party being allowed to speak on national TV or radio. When we in Sinn Féin talk about these issues, we know the impact of restricting free speech and we oppose it. However, we will not allow the exploitation, bullying and the crass sexual objectification of people who provided no permission for either users or big tech companies to use their images in such a brutal way. Five years ago this month, Coco's Law entered into force. It was and is a good and necessary piece of legislation in the ongoing battle against the distribution and publication of intimate images without consent. Within its first two years, there were 100 prosecutions under the law. While a significant gap remains between the number of reports to hotline.ie and the number of prosecutions, criminalisation of non-consensual recording or distribution of intimate images was and remains necessary. However, there is a lack of clarity as to whether the legislation covers the generation or creation of intimate images through AI. Our Bill seeks to provide clarity on that. We have an obligation to prevent another generation of women and girls from experiencing misogyny and gender-based violence. While this amendment to Coco's Law will not solve all these ills, it will go some way towards protecting people from the frankly disgusting abuse of AI tools and their use in creating unwanted and unauthorised sexual images.

Sentiment score: -0.04