The Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) and Digital Rights Ireland (DRI) said in a joint statement that X Internet Unlimited Company, which is based in Dublin, should face a criminal investigation over sexually explicit “deepfakes” generated by its Grok AI chatbot.

The Green Party previously called on both An Garda Síochána and Coimisiún na Meán to investigate.

In a letter to Garda commissioner Justin Kelly, ICCL and DRI say they believe Grok has generated images which meet the definition of “child pornography” under the Child Trafficking and Pornography Act 1998.

The legislation provides for criminal consequences for the officers of corporate bodies as well as for individuals.

The letter states: “Neither ICCL nor DRI has collected evidence of this image-based sexual abuse because we believe we would be committing an offence to do so.

“However, we believe An Garda Síochána must exercise its powers urgently to investigate and prosecute this industrial scale production of child sexual abuse material.

“Furthermore, An Garda Síochána needs to reassure the public that a perpetrator will be held accountable for what has been done.”

In a post on Sunday, X said: “We take action against illegal content on X, including child sexual abuse material (CSAM), by removing it, permanently suspending accounts, and working with local governments and law enforcement as necessary.

“Anyone using or prompting Grok to make illegal content will suffer the same consequences as if they upload illegal content.”