Keira Keogh (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Chair and wish him well in his position. I look forward to working with all my colleagues and welcome the witnesses.

I am approaching this committee from a psychology background. I worked for a long time in the neurodiverse space, mainly in early intervention. I also have a background in tourism, having worked in a tourism business. I am excited about how AI will affect both those areas. Like everybody else, I am both excited and terrified in equal measure. I am excited about the endless possibilities that AI will show us in modern medicine and in saving lives on our roads. We already see driverless cars in Japan and Los Angeles. Those kinds of innovations are very welcome.  AI will also assist farmers in rural areas where there are difficulties with succession planning and getting hands on the ground on farms. We just have to make sure we clarify at all times which AI we are referring to.

I am also excited about how AI is going to impact education. Going back to the neurodiverse space, being able to have individualised, one-to-one tutors on the screen will really impact that area. AI can help patients with dementia and Alzheimer's. That is going to be an exciting space.

As I said, I am also terrified. I am worried about the scams, fraud and misinformation and the huge disconnect between generations. To take the simple technology of paying for things using our phone, most of us do that now without thinking but many in the older generation are not there yet. They are scared of it. Will AI move so fast that we leave behind a whole generation? Will it widen the gap economically because some people will have access to better AI or countries in the developed world will have AI and other countries will be left behind? I look forward to working with my colleagues and hopefully producing a good report and recommendations for the betterment of society.