I think this is the second set of statements we have had on artificial intelligence. A bit like the previous speaker, I do not think anybody in this House is an expert in AI in the same way as there are in industry. That is part of the challenge for us as representatives of the people. That is why we are here. It is for us to understand, articulate and predict an industry that is rapidly changing. Its applications are rapidly changing. What we saw this week was a fairly grotesque application of a tool. We would be wrong to think in terms of one platform or in terms of AI being the issue. The issue here was the application of the tool. That could happen on X, ChatGPT, Copilot or others. It often does not because those companies have put safeguards in place. Initially, at least, X seemed to revel in not putting any restrictions on technology. That is because of the overall ideology of its owner. If somebody goes on X and asks somebody to create an image which involves the sexualisation of children and a company produces that image, my view is the person who requested it and the company which generated it both created the content. Whether you use a camera and a light, a Photoshop from ten years ago or AI, you are responsible when you generate sexual images of children. I understand there are investigations and I hope that is the interpretation the Garda takes, regardless of what Acts are in place. I note the comments from the Taoiseach on the 1998 Act. There is also Coco's Law, which we probably never thought would apply in the area of AI, but it has. Both of those Acts appear, in my reading of it, to be sufficient for the Garda to act. This is now an enforcement issue. I welcome the Minister of State saying she is willing to look at new legislation. Of course we should look at new legislation. There are many areas of AI. When we think of AI as an additional tool, we have to think of how it will impact. Whether it was the industrial revolution, rural electrification, the Internet or AI, this is just a different version of new technology and of course it will have impacts. An area of concern is creativity. When somebody creates something, who are they creating it with? They are contributing their ideas and prompts, which can be creative and dynamic, but they are co-creating it with a platform. Who is credited for that? How will that be credited in terms of creativity and rights going forward? There is the area of skills. My daughter is in transition year and has an AI class. They are learning how to use AI; they are not necessarily learning how AI can replace traditional work. There are so many societal impacts. Grok caught everybody by surprise because it is a company that did not seem willing to be bound by the norm of not approving images involving sexualisation of children. There are many people out there who do not accept the norms of society. That is why the Government should step in and make changes where required. I acknowledge the work the Minister of State and the Taoiseach have done. I hope the Garda Commissioner will follow through. In the American system, the chief police officer is able to stand up and say, "We're going after this guy", and make a public statement. Our police do not operate in that way. That is regrettable. If there had been a statement from the Garda earlier in the week, we might be in a different space in the debate. I wish good luck to the Minister of State. It is a very open area and one we have to be careful of. It is a tool with positive and negatives. Our job as legislators is to balance that.
Sentiment score: 0.13