Lynn Ruane (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I apologise if I have to leave when the witnesses are responding. I am a member of the justice committee and we are working in a similar vein, on facial recognition technology at 4 o'clock. I will look back at the Official Report but I wanted to apologise in advance.

Professor O'Sullivan highlighted some of the UNICEF guidelines, one of which related to providing transparency, explainability and accountability. Will he speak a little more to them, especially in regard to who is responsible in the context of those guidelines?

In respect of the UNICEF guidelines on creating an enabling environment, Ms Gallagher and others spoke to how we also need to look at that enabling aspect in the context of being able to measure and remedy some of the risks while also leveraging some of the advantages of AI. Where AI is used to aid accessibility and inclusivity, whether in speech, ALT text, closed captions or other ways in which AI is used, are we doing enough to fully leverage the benefits while also fully mitigating the risks?

Turning to Cybersafe Kids, I was struck by the mention of addiction in young users by the creation of dopamine loops. It made me think of categories of children who may be more affected by or susceptible to that, such as kids who have ADHD. In the context of the education or awareness aspect, is any work or research ongoing into categories of kids or young people, that dopamine addiction aspect and how relatable that is to young people who have ADHD, especially in the context of hyper focus and the seeking out of that dopamine hit?

On recommender systems, Dr. Ryan or another witness might like to come in on this. Is there any jurisdiction currently that disables these systems for young people? If the system is disabled, does that have to be done individually for each website or app, or is there a way we can programme each device to do it generally? I am probably not asking this question well because I am still trying to understand the issue. How do we best achieve what I am asking about? Dr. Ryan referred to Coimisiún na Meán and so on, but does the disabling function have to be app and website specific, or is there a way to address recommender systems across the board? If I am not asking the question correctly, the witnesses might let me know.