Dr. Sasha Rubel:

I will complement what my colleagues have said. We think it is essential to address the skills gap. The responsibility lies in increased co-operation between the public and private sectors. We need all hands on deck for this. That is one of the commitments we made in the engagement we had as part of the donation of free digital technology kits to primary schools across Ireland. This is part of the enabling digital technology in primary schools programme. We see the impact of collaboration in addressing the issue.

As human beings, we are afraid of what we do not understand. It is essential to encourage understanding of AI and machine learning, AIML, technology but we do not need everybody to be an AIML coder. We need people to understand what the technology is, how to address those risks and how to develop and deploy it responsibly. That is one of the reasons we have placed a particular emphasis not only on the aspect of digital literacy but also on literacy related to responsibility and what that looks like. As I mentioned in my opening statement, there are incredible opportunities to use this technology to address social challenges in Ireland and beyond.

To complement what my colleagues have said, one of the things we are particularly committed to is educating citizens about how AI, as a technology, can also be used to address some of the challenges presented by AI. I will speak concretely. At the top of the minds of the policymakers here today will be the question of generative AI and misinformation and disinformation. That is one of the reasons we adhered to the Munich tech accord, as did the organisations represented by my colleagues here today. The accord looks at operationalising methods to harness AI to mitigate those risks by, for example, watermarking content to combat deepfakes. We are developing AI technologies to automatically detect and remove child sexual abuse material online. We can use AI to automatically detect and remove bias in job applications online that include biased language that discourages women to apply. In the same way as there are risks related to this technology, there are incredible opportunities to use it to address the risks. That is why we see digital skills as absolutely essential in empowering people to innovate and develop these solutions so we can mitigate those risks responsibly and harness the opportunities.