Malcolm Byrne (Wicklow-Wexford, Fianna Fail)

Okay. We will have time for another round. It now falls to me to contribute. This has been a really engaging session. Two of the big long-term challenges and opportunities for Ireland centre on the pace of change of the technological revolution, which is phenomenal, and demographic changes and looking at how we are ageing as a society. It is great that we are living longer. I see with both of these challenges that there is going to be a relationship..

In many ways technology has helped us to be able to live longer but, at this point, it is about what we need to do to deploy safe AI. We cannot make the AI safe when it is already out there.

Part of the role of the committee will be on making recommendations to the Government on the safe deployment of AI in a number of areas. AI is already being used quite a lot in healthcare. Do the witnesses have views on recommendations on AI in healthcare, particularly with regard to older people? Mr. Mellon mentioned that older people are very engaged with traditional media in particular and trust them. I am a great believer in public information campaigns. The campaign on the misuse of intimate images was very effective. We need to look at a campaign explaining what an algorithm is. Do the witnesses have any thoughts on public information campaigns specifically targeted at older people? With regard to the training data issue, we will meet many of the companies that develop AI platforms. If there were a one-sentence message the witnesses want to deliver to them, particularly on training data, what would it be?