Oireachtas children’s committee to hear social media companies defend use of artificial intelligence

The Oireachtas children’s committee will tomorrow hear from representatives from TikTok, Meta, and X. File Picture: Yui Mok/PA Wire

Social media companies are to downplay the threat artificial intelligence on their platforms represents for Irish children, with most saying they primarily use AI for the detection of harmful content.

The Oireachtas children’s committee will tomorrow hear from representatives from TikTok, Meta, and X (formerly Twitter) about the "protection of children in the use of artificial intelligence".

TikTok’s head of public policy Susan Moss will tell the committee that AI plays an “integral role” in terms of content moderation on the platform, with such moderation at its “most effective when cutting-edge technology is combined with human oversight and judgement”.

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In terms of AI-generated content itself, and how TikTok manages same, Ms Moss will point to the platform’s “robust community guidelines”, while adding that users are required “to label AI-generated content that contains realistic images, audio, or video, in order to help viewers contextualise the videos they see and prevent the potential spread of misleading content”.

She will say TikTok is “currently in the process” of testing the automatic labelling of AI-generated content.

Facebook owner Meta will tell the committee AI also “plays a central role in reducing the volume of harmful online content on Facebook and Instagram”.

Its public policy head Dualta O Broin will stress that, for Meta, “there are some violation areas where AI is extremely effective”, giving the example of fake accounts, where Mr O Broin will say “over 99% of violations are identified by our AI systems”.

The committee will also hear from X, whose head of Government affairs for Ireland and the UK, Niamh McDade, will tell the committee that “sharing media or content generated by AI is not in and of itself a violation of X’s rules”.

She will say X has developed “important resources” in the battle against “misleading media”, but will likewise say, on potential harms to children, that “X is not the platform of choice for children and teens”.

“If a person tells us they are under 13, they will not be able to sign up for an account,” Ms McDade will state.