Irish Examiner View: Need for regulation of social media and AI is evident

There has been widespread anger after the image tool for Grok was used to manipulate thousands of images of women and sometimes children. Photograph: Yui Mok/PA

AI has been a lively topic of discussion in recent days, not least because of the lord mayor of Cork’s admission that he relies on AI for his speeches.

A far darker side of AI technology was revealed this week when Cormac O’Keeffe reported on findings shared by Children at Risk in Ireland (Cari), a sexual abuse treatment service for young children.

The service has been inundated with new referral cases involving harmful sexual behaviour among children; Cari believes increased exposure to online pornography, online grooming, and image-based abuse is having a “real impact” on young children.

Cari is particularly worried by the effects of AI technology, with a spokesperson saying: “With the emergence of AI-enabled image manipulation, we are deeply concerned that children are increasingly at risk of encountering harmful content.”

Cari is not exaggerating. In recent weeks, there was an outcry about the AI tool Grok on X, which allowed users to ask the tool to remove clothing from photos of women and children and place them in sexually suggestive positions. The fact that X did not remove the feature immediately and completely, but agreed to suspend it in places where it is illegal and limit it to paid subscribers adds weight to a related story which also emerged this week.

Sean Murray, in this newspaper, reported the Ombudsman for Children’s Office stating that social media companies such as X have “too much discretion” when it comes to their duty to keep children safe online. The proof is in the measures outlined by the Ombudsman, which include safer platform design, protection from algorithms, and clear accountability for companies — none of which are readily available.

The combination of AI tools such as Grok and irresponsible social media companies is toxic, but hardly surprising. The precise impact of that combination can be seen in the rising number of cases of harmful sexual behaviour among children. 

On that basis, Coimisiún na Meán’s work in holding these companies to account must be well resourced and prioritised by the Government.

Rowing Ireland: Questions still unanswered

The meeting of the joint committee on arts, media, communications, culture, and sport this week was extraordinary, even by the standards of extraordinary Oireachtas committee meetings. Some of the occurrences related to this meeting with Rowing Ireland were justifiably described as “unprecedented” by committee chairman Alan Kelly.

Rowing Ireland has been the subject of media coverage focusing on athlete welfare within the organisation, and while some of its senior officials were on hand, they did not include chief executive officer Michelle Carpenter. Rowing Ireland chairman Barry McWilliams said Ms Carpenter was unwell.

Senator Evanne Ní Chuilinn told the committee that Ms Carpenter had contacted her the evening before the meeting, while Mr Kelly said Ms Carpenter had rung the clerk of the committee on the morning of the meeting and that she had also emailed the chair and vice-chair of the committee on Wednesday morning.

When the committee proceedings got under way, the unprecedented scenes continued. Mr McWilliams apologised for Ms Carpenter’s absence. But when asked to apologise to athletes for their experiences within the organisation, he expressed his regrets but did not apologise formally.

Sport Ireland representatives were also at the meeting which learned that that organisation’s concerns led it to stop funding Rowing Ireland in July 2024.

It should be pointed out that July 2024 was when the Paris Olympic Games began. At those games, Ireland won rowing gold through Paul O’Donovan and Fintan McCarthy, while Daire Lynch and Philip Doyle won bronze medals. Yet even while those athletes were competing and winning at the highest level, their sport’s governing body was so dysfunctional its funding was stopped.

The welfare of athletes must always be a priority, and it is deeply unsatisfactory that these matters could not be discussed in more detail at this week’s committee meeting.

Rowing Ireland receives significant public funding — €1.4m annually for its high-performance section and €400,000 in core funding — and its representatives should be available to explain any issues of governance with public representatives.

The shenanigans at this week’s meeting cast a shadow over sporting triumphs which enthralled the nation in recent years, and serious questions remain unanswered.

Sour times for sweet tooths

Loving her chocolate egg is Fiadh Owen, Ballincollig, at the 2023 Easter Egg hunt at Fota House, Cork. Picture: Dan Linehan

For those with a sweet tooth, the facts are a little distasteful.

Various costs the confectionery industry must deal with — ranging from shipping, packaging, sugar prices, milk, and cocoa — have risen in recent years, with the consequences filtered out across the industry, and not for the better.

As explained here this week by Caitríona Redmond, some manufacturers are now using more palm oil in chocolate products to compensate for poor quality cocoa, but a decrease in the amount of cocoa means a product may not actually qualify as a chocolate bar.

Last year, for instance, popular bars such as Club and Penguin no longer had enough cocoa content to be described as chocolate bars.

The bad news continues with egg shrinkage. Many readers will have noticed that some chocolate eggs have decreased in size by as much as 30% in the last eight years — discouraging news as Easter approaches, particularly as the drop in size has not been accompanied by a drop in price.

In a final blow, it also appears that even the smaller Easter eggs, such as Dairy Milk Freddo Faces, have shrunk from 96g to 90g in the last year.

Is nothing sacred?