Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

As I said to Deputy O’Reilly yesterday, I invite all Deputies and Senators to come to the audiovisual room on 11 July when Dr. Patricia Scanlon, the national AI ambassador, will answer many of these questions. Regarding the legislation, we are looking at issues like the definition of AI, enforcement and governance, biometric identification and the various foundation models. We want to regulate the threats of AI such as the threat to employment and threats to people generally but, equally, we must recognise that there are enormous opportunities here. Technologies that have become common in our daily lives were also considered threats that could bring about mass extinction of employment, but we evolved, dealt with them and put appropriate guideline regulations in place that allowed for innovation and that protected citizens, not just in the area of employment but also in other areas. What we are trying to do as a country is to get a balance. My predecessor, Deputy Troy, published our national AI strategy in 2021, which was way before this debate got to the level it has. We are ahead of the game on this and we will continue, as a country, to stay ahead of the game.

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