Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael)
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310. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht if officials from her Department are using an application (details supplied) to conduct business; if her Department has had official meetings regarding the use of the application by officials; if her Department has assessed the risk of using the application by Department officials and the input of Government-related data into the application; if her Department is using or is considering using other forms of artificial intelligence; if her Department is considering banning the use of the application by Department officials; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [21093/23]

Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party)
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I am advised that officials from my Department are not using ChatGPT to conduct business and no official meetings have been held regarding the use of the application by officials.

The use of software or applications in my Department must be in line with all relevant Department policies, and consistent with advice provided by the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC). My Department has not assessed the risk or banning of this application as part of the Department's processes, however my Department would be guided by the NCSC carrying out such an assessment in the first instance.

The Deputy may wish to note that, in relation to other forms of artificial intelligence, my Department funds a data collection project (eStór) aimed at enhancing the operability of Irish for the European Commission’s eTranslation machine translation platform, which is based on neural machine translation, being a form of AI. The eTranslation platform itself may be used occasionally by officials for rapid translation of texts between Irish and English.