Written answers
Thursday, 6 February 2025
Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht
Artificial Intelligence
Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source
117. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht to provide a detailed breakdown of all funding allocated for the year ahead or spent in the past fiscal year by his Department on artificial intelligence systems or artificial intelligence research; what programs or Department operations, if any, are conducted using artificial intelligence tools; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3716/25]
Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source
In relation to funding allocated for the year ahead or spent in the past fiscal year by my Department on artificial intelligence systems or artificial intelligence research, the table below provides the breakdown sought.
| Nature of AI systems or research funded | Amount Spent in 2024 on AI systems or research | Amount allocated for 2025 on AI systems or research | Further detail |
|---|---|---|---|
ALT-EDIC (Large Language Model for European Languages (Gaeilge)) | €45,000 | €45,000 | ALT-EDIC is a European Digital Infrastructure Consortium founded in February 2024, with Ireland as a founding member. Its key objectives are to preserve linguistic and cultural diversity in Europe, promote technological excellence and leadership, and tackle challenges relating to Large Language Models (LLMs). |
Abair.ie (Speech-to-text / Text-to-speech as Gaeilge) | €326,776 | €427,691 | The Abair project aims to develop state-of-the-art language technologies for Irish, with a particular emphasis on speech synthesis and voice recognition applications. |
eStór (Large Language Model for Gaeilge) | €391,850 | €249,098 | eStór is a data collection project aimed at enhancing the operability of Irish for the European Commission’s eTranslation machine translation platform, which is based on neural machine translation. |
An Gaodhal (Optical Character Recognition software for Old Irish script) | N/A | €40,000 | The An Gaodhal project aims to develop character recognition software for Irish, with a particular emphasis on character recognition for texts written in the old Gaelic typeface. |
I am advised by my officials that no programs or Departmental operations are conducted using artificial intelligence tools. 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).
No comments