Keira Keogh (Mayo, Fine Gael)

It is a matter of getting the balance right. Before we had AI, people were going to Dr. Google for medical advice. Now they are asking ChatGPT. We must ensure that we are there at the forefront with chatbots in our health service. The caveat of being aware you are talking to an AI chatbot or AI model on the phone, and being able to ask for a human, is vital.

The digital divide was also mentioned. In my constituency office, I have a clinic every Monday. Often, the resource that we are providing involves printing something off the citizens information website and helping someone to fill it out. There has to be an area where we can utilise public libraries or civic offices and have chatbots help people to fill out forms, with the caveat and the protections that were always there in the form of a human at the end of it. There is huge scope there for people who come in and are not aware of what is available to them.