Malcolm Byrne (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Before I raise the one matter I wish to raise, I wish to state that I agree with the views expressed by Senator Mullen concerning higher education funding. The issue I wish to raise was reported by Naomi O'Leary in The Irish Timesyesterday on questions around artificial intelligence, AI, and deepfakes but also misinformation and disinformation on social media channels. The article found that on X, formerly Twitter, the level of misinformation or disinformation is by far the greatest of all the major social media platforms. The European Commission has said it will take action under the Digital Services Act. It is alarming and of concern with the major platforms, particularly considering how many democracies are going to face into elections next year. We need to tackle this problem. Meta, the owners of Facebook and Instagram, in the first six months of 2023 took down 426 million fake accounts, which represents about 5% of active users. While the figure is not exact, we know in the case of Twitter that up to 20% of users are fake. There is a very serious risk to our democratic process from the spread of misinformation and disinformation and from the deployment of AI in a negative way, particularly around the use of deepfakes. AI can be used to combat voter fraud and in other positive ways as well.

The Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, has charged the Electoral Commission with looking at this issue. It is important that we invite the Minister to the House to speak about how we can address some of these issues. In the US, the Federal Electoral Commission has already moved towards regulating AI in the context of elections. Given how important it is not just in this sector but across all sectors of Irish society, I again call on these Houses to consider setting up a committee to look at AI and emerging technologies.