Ruairí Ó Murchú
Question:15. Deputy Ruairí Ó Murchú asked the Taoiseach to report on his attendance at the AI Action Summit. [15163/25]
View answerTuesday, 29 April 2025
Questions (15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
Malcolm Byrne
Question:16. Deputy Malcolm Byrne asked the Taoiseach to report on his attendance at the AI Action Summit in Paris recently. [9168/25]
View answer
Naoise Ó Cearúil
Question:17. Deputy Naoise Ó Cearúil asked the Taoiseach if he will report on his attendance at the AI Action Summit in Paris recently. [15471/25]
View answer
Richard Boyd Barrett
Question:18. Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett asked the Taoiseach to report on his attendance at the AI Action Summit. [15508/25]
View answer
Paul Murphy
Question:19. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Taoiseach to report on his attendance at the AI Action Summit. [15511/25]
View answer
Rose Conway-Walsh
Question:20. Deputy Rose Conway-Walsh asked the Taoiseach to report on his attendance at the AI Action Summit. [17317/25]
View answerOral answers (8 contributions)
I propose to take Questions Nos. 15 to 20, inclusive, together.
I travelled to Paris for the AI Action Summit on 10 and 11 February, co-hosted by President Macron and Prime Minister Modi of India. The summit gathered key stakeholders to explore how we can develop artificial intelligence, AI, technologies and uses globally while ensuring that nobody is left behind. It also discussed preserving our freedoms in the AI revolution and ensuring that the technology serves society and the public interest. The event included a working dinner at the Elysée on Monday evening, attended by political, business and civil society leaders, and a closing ceremony at the Grand Palais on Tuesday morning, which was live-streamed. The closing ceremony featured panel discussions and keynote remarks, including from President Macron, Prime Minister Modi, US Vice-President Vance and European Commission President von der Leyen. Panellists included musician-producer Pharrell Williams, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, and Doreen Bogdan-Martin, Secretary General of the International Telecommunications Union.
In my engagements, I emphasised the need to embrace the opportunities that AI can offer across all sectors for our start-ups and enterprise base and, ultimately, for our citizens and their quality of life. We must acknowledge the watershed nature of AI as a breakthrough technology. AI can be a game-changer in helping us to deal with many of the economic and societal challenges we face here in Ireland and across the European Union. We need a balanced approach that does not stifle entrepreneurship or over-burden innovative firms with regulation. We must be open to the significant economy-wide productivity gains made possible by fast-growing young firms at the technological frontier. AI can also help transform the delivery of our public services. This includes exciting potential in the health sector, such as diagnostics, and in the management of disease and chronic illnesses. We also need to ensure that the AI revolution does not come at the expense of the most vulnerable in society, that it does not deepen existing digital and gender divides and that it does not risk the erosion of individual freedoms, including freedom of expression. We need to protect our children and young people online, protect the integrity of our democratic values and combat the effects of disinformation. Ireland will continue to be a strong voice in Europe to ensure that we are striking the right balance on innovation-friendly rules for trustworthy AI, consistent with our democratic values.
The AI Action Summit issued the Statement on Inclusive and Sustainable Artificial Intelligence for People and the Planet. That sounds wonderful. It is how we deliver it and what our plan is in this State in that regard. We all know the dangers of artificial intelligence in the sense that it is the garnering of information and machine learning on a huge level, or on steroids for want of a better term. That can be used for good and ill. It is how we wed the absolute necessity that we are part of this in the context of innovation and the breakthroughs there may be in medicine and education and all around while, at the same time, having sufficient protective regulation. We have all seen the damage that has been done and we all know there are insufficient supports and protections in what social media companies can do at this point. That is only one part of the danger in this regard. Therefore, it is how we set out with a real plan on delivery as regards innovation and beyond, but also that we have that regulation to protect those who are vulnerable at this point in time because of big tech. Many times it will go where the money is and not necessarily where people's rights are.
I thank the Taoiseach for his personal interest in the subject and in the potential and opportunities that artificial intelligence presents in so many aspects of Irish life. The fact that there are references to AI and digitalisation within the programme for Government including, as the Taoiseach referenced, the improvements to public services, means it is going to be critical.
Our challenge, as the point was made, is how we govern the roll-out of this new technology, not just at a national or European level but, indeed, globally because technology like this is going to be transnational. The Taoiseach is correct that the concepts of regulation and innovation are not mutually exclusive. It is about getting the appropriate balance right.
The EU AI Act, while not perfect, is certainly a very good start. However, how does the Taoiseach envisage on a global level us ensuring the kinds of principles that are laid out in the AI Act, and, as he mentioned, how we defend human rights, the rule of law and our democratic values in the roll-out of this new technology, both to avoid a small number of individuals controlling technology companies setting the agenda and the misuse of AI? We have seen, for instance, in China social credit scoring by the Chinese Communist Party, the Israel Defense Forces using particular technologies in Palestine and, indeed, Iran using AI to discriminate against women with its hijab law. From an EU and an Irish perspective, we have certainly made a very good start, but it is important for Ireland to play a lead in setting out the basis on which we use this new technology globally.
AI represents one of the biggest economic opportunities of our generation. I was fortunate enough to work in this space for three and a half years and in the tech sector for eight and a half years prior to being elected to this House. The Taoiseach's attendance at the AI Action Summit was extremely encouraging, as eill the establishment of the Oireachtas joint committee on artificial intelligence. I wish my colleague, Deputy Malcolm Byrne, the very best of luck as he chairs that committee. Opportunity demands action, however, and I would like that particular committee to come up with some suggestions to Government with how we can utilise AI from an international perspective and a State perspective. Will the Taoiseach ensure that AI is treated not just as a tech issue but as a cornerstone of Ireland's future economic strategy?
The Government is drunk on the propaganda of big tech with regard to AI. It is so drunk that it is trying to force AI into the leaving certificate examination. From September, students will be allowed to use AI as an additional assessment component, which will be worth at least 40% of marks in many subjects. It is meant to be cited in the paper that AI was used but this will give a massive advantage to students from better-off backgrounds who will be able to pay for more advanced AI programmes to give them answers without them being detected and without them being cited.
Additional assessment in science subject will require access to labs. Fee-paying private schools might be able to manage that but DEIS schools that can barely keep the lights on will not. A biology teacher told the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland, ASTI, conference that DEIS schools will be wiped out. Teachers are so worried about how unfair this is going to be that they are willing to go on strike over it. Will the Taoiseach intervene and at the very least impose a 12-month moratorium on this crazy plan so we can keep AI out of the leaving certificate examination?
Central Statistics Office, CSO, data shows that in 2023, AI was used by 8% of Irish enterprises with ten or more employees. The benefits of AI are well-rehearsed and no doubt it will revolutionise the way in which businesses operate in this country and in the global market. It is a very exciting time of innovation but it also carries risks and it has the potential to significantly impact both human rights and equality and the national security of the State. Why, therefore, has the Government not listed the regulation of artificial intelligence Bill as priority legislation? The Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment held a public consultation almost a year ago, yet there is still no clarity on who the competent authorities responsible for implementing the regulation and penalties for non-compliance will be. People need to know that their data, privacy and human rights will be protected as we navigate the new digital reality. As our use of AI grows, what is the Government doing to ensure that data centres are not placing further strain on the national grid and contributing to emissions?
Deputy Rose Conway-Walsh: Central Statistics Office, CSO, data shows that in 2023, AI was used by 8% of Irish enterprises with ten or more employees. The benefits of AI are well-re
In February, the Commission for Regulation of Utilities produced guidelines stating that any new development must generate or store as much electricity as it uses but there is no requirement that this energy comes from renewable sources. This could see a multiple of new gas and oil power plants built to run their electricity-hungry operations, placing Ireland's climate targets in jeopardy. This is something we must look at. We can do it properly. We can set the scene so this works for businesses, the economy and society. We need to act.
I welcome the establishment of a joint committee on artificial intelligence and wish the chair, Deputy Malcolm Byrne, well in his role. I am happy to be appointed to the committee by Deputy McDonald.
I am also my party's education and youth spokesperson and attended the teachers' conferences held by the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland, ASTI, and the Teachers Union of Ireland, TUI, last week. I heard first-hand the deep concerns about the potential use of AI. The Taoiseach referenced the digital divide and teachers have concerns that the current approach of the Minister to senior cycle reform, which is rushed and accelerated, will build advantage on advantage and disadvantage on disadvantage. There is an opportunity for the use of AI in additional assessment components and continuous assessment. Those aspects will comprise a minimum of 40%. There is a sense from teachers and educators that it is a ridiculous position to have as standard. I call on the Taoiseach to listen to the concerns of teachers and educators, to pause the senior cycle reform and to engage with educators across the board.
I thank all the Deputies for contributing to this debate. It is important. The debate illustrates the importance of the Oireachtas committee on AI that will be established. I look forward to further detailed, sensible and balanced consideration of the issue. We can already witness a divide that is too extreme. There are those who see AI as totally negative, others who see positives in it and others still who see the need for balance and guidance around the use of AI. One thing for sure is that AI is here and will be a significant revolution. Nobody is drunk on anything. This is just the reality of life in the world. It is not just in Ireland but in the world. We have choices. We can put our heads in the sand, present it as some dastardly plot from the industrial or technological giants of the world and say that we want none of it or we can endeavour to harness it for the benefit of industry, society, the economy and the people. That is going to be the challenge, as it has been with all technological developments since the world began. It is inevitable when there are major breakthroughs in technology. If we look back to the printing press or go back to the 1960s and the development of television, there were naysayers and people who were worried and thought the world was going to collapse and so on. The world adapts and people adapt. We need regulatory frameworks governing everything. We need a balance between regulation and innovation, and we must get that balance right here. It will have profound impacts for energy, for example. We must ascertain how to create the energy resources to underpin the AI revolution that is coming. If we are not a part of the revolution that is taking place in technical terms, there will be economic consequences. It will have profound impacts on how we do things in life and in work, in particular.
The EU does not get any credit at all from a number of people in this House. It is interesting. Deputy Malcolm Byrne gave an interesting and quick summation of where the world is. The EU has an Act that is endeavouring to deal with human rights and the protection of society and individuals. The Deputy instanced Iran, Israel, China and others. There is a divide across the world at the moment between autocracies and authoritarian governments, on the one hand, and democracies and institutions such as the EU on the other. The EU has been the first to develop a modern Act endeavouring to strike a balance between innovation and regulation. Some say it is too heavily on the side of regulation and less so on the side of innovation. This is the basis on which the committee we are about to establish should engage.
The Department of Education, with the support of Oide, the support service for teachers and school leavers, is currently developing guidance on the use of AI in teaching and learning. This guidance will be published and circulated to schools shortly. Currently, information on AI in education for schools can be found on the Oide technology and education website.
I was at the young scientist exhibition at the beginning of January and many of the projects submitted by young people were on the subject of AI. Young people are ahead of this place, as far as I can see so far, in terms of where they see, and how they perceive, AI. They are dealing with it. We have to put the student first in all our considerations of this issue.
On the redevelopment of the senior cycle and the State Examinations Commission, the AI guidance currently being finalised does not apply to assessment for the purpose of certification by the State Examinations Commission in the junior or leaving certificates. Further work is being undertaken by the State Examinations Commission on general and subject-specific documentation.