Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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576. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if his Department has taken advice in respect of the use of artificial intelligence, AI, within his Department; if any section of his Department currently makes use of AI; if he will outline the purposes it is utilised for and costs associated with same; and if he has consulted with any consultancy firms in respect of the use of AI. [38564/23]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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My Department led the development of the National Artificial Intelligence Strategy - “AI – Here for Good”, and published a progress report on its implementation on 9 August.

As part of this Strategy, the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform and the National Cyber Security Centre play a key role in providing advice and guidance on the deployment of AI tools, including generative AI, across the public sector including to my Department.

The National AI Strategy and this cross-government engagement will continue to inform the Department's future approach in seeking to leverage A.I. in relation to the work and functions of the Department. When developing any new systems, my Department assesses the risks and benefits of appropriate technologies, including A.I., on a case by case basis. When implementing these technologies, advice is sought from all appropriate sources. Suitable policies and safeguards are then put in place.

One of the Department’s Offices, the Companies Registration Office (CRO), uses machine learning to scan digitised annual returns to check whether they are signed in the appropriate places. This technology has proven to be very effective in delivering processing efficiencies for the CRO. The CRO received over 240,000 Annual Returns in 2022, all of which were processed using this signature recognition facility. The total cost of the project was €175,402. My Department and the CRO also collaborated on a project to scan CRO annual returns and derive semantic meaning from the data. Work on data analysis from this project is ongoing.

My Department has not consulted with any consultancy firms in respect of the use of A.I. in the Department.