Professor Alan Smeaton:

It is the last issue that keeps me awake at night. It is hugely important. According to Article 4 of the EU AI Act, any organisation that uses AI, including the Houses of the Oireachtas, has to have in place an AI literacy programme. I know that the AI literacy package has been prepared within the Houses of the Oireachtas. It is currently being translated into Irish. I was told yesterday that its announcement and availability for Members are imminent. However, AI literacy is different for different constituents and different people. We all need different forms of it and different delivery of it. There is a huge urgency with that because the more we understand what goes on in that black box and the more we have a mental model of it, the more we can appreciate how it can be good, how it can be used for good and how it can also be used for evil, and we can separate the differences.