Mr. Liam Herrick:

We have to hold our hands up as well. There are many public bodies, including ourselves and the Citizens Information Board, that have functions to provide information to members of the public about their rights and entitlements. We can all do better at making those resources more accessible and more widely available. There may very well be areas in which new technologies in this space are of assistance to us in doing that. We have an open mind about the potential benefits. Even though most of what we have said today has been about flagging the potential risks, there are absolutely benefits as well. It is about having the correct framework in place.

Internationally, with chatbot technology, for example, we are seeing some negative consequences both in terms of children turning to chatbots and also people who are vulnerable with regard to mental health difficulties and other counselling needs of counselling who are accessing chatbots. There can be very negative consequences in those instances, particularly if the models of chatbots are reinforcing people's existing behaviour. We have seen some tragic outcomes, which are currently before the courts in different countries.