Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 29 May 2024

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation

Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Businesses: Discussion (Resumed)

Mr. Jeremy Rollison:

I am happy to take the first stab at it. This is a question we hear a lot. We are hearing exactly the same formulation. There are reasons to be optimistic, and we are seeing some of that, but there are many risks and concerns. In their interventions at the outset of the meeting, my colleagues noted a big emphasis on skilling. I do not want to put words into the mouths of others but I think we are aligned that it is not just about some of the AI skills but familiarity with the technology and its risks. I often reference the fact that even my mother asks me how to get AI. We have a lot of education to do in that regard.

There are different types of skills involved and it is not just about training the prompt engineers and data scientists of the future. We must talk about the risks, the disinformation context and the education that needs to go on across all of these different sectors. We have a big job to do. It is part of the dialogues. One entity alone cannot win that debate. We need a variety of conversations. I would like to lean into that skilling. Perhaps we need to come up with a better word because it is about awareness and training, and is beyond some of the computational skills. It is about how AI works in a day-to-day environment as opposed to in a professional environment in a tech company. We need to consider how it works in automotive and manufacturing contexts, and how it impacts hairdressers and plumbers. Where will we see any benefits from that side of things? There is a big task to do.