Naoise Ó Cearúil (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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There is a little bit of fearmongering about the future. I use the word intentionally because we must deal with the here and now. We must regulate for the future, as well as the here and now, but AI is here. It is present. I have two questions specifically about digital literacy and education on AI. I will give two examples. One example is to take two hardware stores that are selling tools online. One store has learned how to utilise Gemini, Copilot or ChatGPT and set up AI agents that know how to prompt properly. It has a service on the website, all done through AI, and bookkeeping is done through AI, so it has cut a lot of costs. It is far more efficient. It can also do a lot of marketing with AI. Its competitor is falling way behind. In terms of that piece of digital literacy, how do we help SMEs to keep pace with their competitors? Is it through local enterprise offices? Is it through the education and training boards? Is there room for another State entity or private entity to educate those SMEs?

The second question I have relates to primary and secondary education. We could have a debate about the age when people can utilise AI, in particular LMs, the likes of ChatGPT, etc. Anyone can put in a question but if children or young adults around the age of 16 are unable to prompt properly, put in a detailed prompt or to set up an AI agent at present, they are going to fall behind when it comes to university in the next five years. There will be more developments in AI in the next few weeks, months, etc.

It is important that our children are not left behind in comparison with children who perhaps have more resources or more access to artificial intelligence, not only in Ireland but internationally. A key part of that is to focus on how we can compete, academically, in the future as well.

One question is on education in digital literacy for SMEs and the second is on education, in particular at post-primary level and senior cycle level as well.