Lynn Ruane (Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context

I echo the well wishes to the Cathaoirleach. I look forward to working with everyone.

This committee makes me nervous. I am nervous about exploring how AI intersects with so many different areas of our lives, whether that be the implications it has for poverty, creating digital poorhouses, human rights, war, how vulnerable poor communities interact with the State and understanding the difference between AI and subsets of AI. What makes me more nervous than anything, however, is not knowing what questions to ask. This has become more apparent in recent years. As we policymakers debate in the Houses, people say headline things but nobody actually understands what is under the bonnet in terms of how people engage with machine learning, how it is made and what are the inputs. What frightens me is that we are having this big conversation, but I do not know whether we fully know what questions to ask to make sure we build a system that is ethical and that does not leave people behind.

I have read a number of books, especially from the United States, to try my best to understand how AI intersects with the things I care about, including in relation to how bail is decided in the justice system and the issue of funding being streamed into the best performing classrooms and teachers. AI has the capacity to set us back years with regard to alleviating poverty. There is also this optimistic part of me that asks whether, if we do this right, AI can be used to alleviate these issues. I am nervous and worried about not knowing what to ask. I am also hopeful about trying to engage with those parts of AI that have the potential to lessen that gap. My focus will be on looking at where I feel AI has the potential to widen the gap between those who have and those who have not.