Mr. Jeremy Godfrey:

I thank the Cathaoirleach and the committee for the invitation to attend today. I am the executive chair of Coimisiún na Meán. I am joined by Anne-Marie Pollock, our director of policy for democracy and fundamental rights.

At Coimisiún na Meán, we aim to develop and regulate a thriving, diverse, creative, safe and trusted media landscape. The advent of AI is likely to impact on each of those elements. A healthy media landscape empowers citizens to make informed choices about the media they consume and the ways in which they consume it. This means exposing citizens to a variety of voices and opinions, enabling them to identify reliable sources of news and to understand how technologies such as AI play a part in choosing what they see and hear when they engage with media through online platforms or smart devices.

Democracy is one of the strategic outcomes set out in our initial three-year strategy. We want the media landscape to support democracy and democratic values, underpin civic discourse and reduce the impact of disinformation on our society. In the wrong hands, AI can undermine those aims. For example, the risks AI poses in this area include deepfakes being deliberately used to mislead voters, AI in recommender systems exacerbating echo chamber effects and amplifying the reach of misinformation and disinformation, AI being used to customise or target political messages in a manipulative manner, and AI chatbots being used as a source of news that produces content that is biased or inaccurate.

We have already been designated by the Government as a fundamental rights authority and a market surveillance authority for certain provisions within the EU AI Act in Ireland. We are in regular contact with relevant Departments as the new functions are implemented in Irish law and as we plan how we can use our new competences to support a healthy media landscape. The new AI Act's risk-based approach prohibits a range of AI practices that undermine fundamental rights, including using subliminal or purposefully manipulative and deceptive techniques to distort people's behaviour in a way that might cause harm or exploit vulnerable users such as children. There are also transparency obligations falling on providers and deployers of limited-risk uses. They include requirements for AI systems designed to interact with people to inform them of this, such as chatbots or chatbot assistants, and the labelling of AI-generated or manipulated content, such as deepfakes or AI-generated news summaries. This will apply to online platforms and broadcasters, among others.

Under the EU's Digital Services Act, platforms are obliged to remove illegal content once they become aware of it or otherwise risk becoming liable for it. The largest platforms have further obligations to assess and mitigate a set of systemic risks arising from how they are designed and used. They include actual or foreseeable negative outcomes for civic discourse and electoral integrity. The risk assessment and mitigation obligations have been further specified with a set of guidelines for platforms in times of elections. New rules for online platforms mean those that show political advertisements must have clear labelling showing who paid, what targeting techniques have been used and specifying the election issue to which the advertisement relates. Platforms that do not allow political advertisements must enforce this restriction proportionately and consistently.

To ensure audiences are exposed to a variety of voices, views and opinions, broadcasters are obliged to make sure news and current affairs output is presented in an objective and impartial manner without any expression of the broadcaster's own political views. However, there are currently no corresponding obligations that apply to content feeds on social media or the output of AI chatbots.

Different types of digital media now rival traditional media for influence and we consider that the time has come to consider how similar plurality obligations could apply to new media.

Regulation is not the only tool for mitigating the risks that AI poses to civic discourse. At Coimisiún na Meán, we also oversee a host of media literacy initiatives to ensure that people can critically engage with and understand the media they consume, regardless of whether it is on TV, radio or online or generated by humans or AI. We want people to be aware of trusted sources of information and how to find them so that they can recognise fact from fiction. It is not our role to tell people what to think or say; our role is to ensure that they have agency to make up their own minds, free of manipulation or deception. There are other public bodies with important roles to play here, for example An Coimisiún Toghcháin, which has a role in providing electoral process information, ensuring that people can exercise their democratic rights. We also have journalism schemes, which are an important way to ensure there are trusted sources of information on matters such as local democracy.

In summary, at Coimisiún na Meán, we want to use the tools at our disposal to ensure that the deployment and use of AI systems benefits people, while ensuring that any negative impacts are effectively addressed through regulating and supporting the development of a healthy media landscape. As the impact of AI becomes clearer over time, there may need to be an assessment of whether other rules need to be updated to reflect changing consumer media consumption patterns and habits arising. I am happy to answer any questions committee members may have.