Artificial Intelligence involves an “arms race between nations” in which there are “no easy options” for Ireland, an Oireachtas committee has heard.
Members of the Government-appointed AI Advisory Council, a voluntary body that includes academics, business people and others with expertise in the field told politicians there are potential costs associated with Ireland seeking to be an international leader in the rapidly emerging field, including the area of energy and climate.
They said these needed to be weighed against potential future losses to the State if it is left behind by international rivals, however, at a time when Government revenues may need to be maximised to deal with a significant number of people whose jobs are made redundant by the technology.
Asked about how a decision to limit the number of data centres built in Ireland in the future or decisions to prevent future developments might impact on Ireland’s ability to benefit from AI developments, the chief executive of a firm called Jentic said a key challenge for Ireland is to accelerate its development of renewable energy generation.
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“If we want to participate in the supply chain of the future at that level, we need to figure out our energy,” Sean Blanchfield told members of the Joint Committee on Artificial Intelligence.
“I don’t think the data centres will be the controversial part if we have an abundance of energy, but I think we already have reached the end of our line in terms of how many data centres we as an economy are willing to build based on fossil fuels.
“So the question is really, what can we do to fix our energy infrastructure so that we can potentially participate in the future economy by helping run the AI and thereby sustain some kind of tax base in the future when we might very sorely need it after it displaces some labour.”
The AI Advisory Council members, including its chair, Dr Patricia Scanlon, said new technologies will present enormous opportunities for society and individuals in areas like education and healthcare, but it is impossible to estimate how many jobs might be created. Mr Blanchfield said some job losses are already apparent.
“I think there’s potential for massive economic disruption from AI,” he said.
Data centre development was a potential positive, he suggested, if Ireland can address the energy issue “because we have excelled at hosting data centres up until recently relative to our size. So we have the established expertise to do that.”
But pressed on when the negative impact of AI on the employment landscape might start to be felt, he said the process was already under way.
“People in my industry are taking this technology and applying it to the first market they know, which is themselves. That’s real, that’s current,” he said.
“Entry-level programming jobs are largely replaced by AI now, certainly among the leading companies, and the job of the software engineers has moved up to more software architecture. I think if you speak to many lawyers, you find the same things happening in law firms.”
With the technology advancing on a continuous basis, he suggested: “If it’s possible to automate the work of a software developer or a junior lawyer, you can automate a lot of things. It’s just a question of repackaging that technology in due course. I think another one would be the customer service.”
Ms Scanlon told the committee difficult choices would have to be made and she was “not an AI advocate at all costs”.
But asked the question what the cost to the country would have been of failing to engage with the development of the internet, she said, “I think we need to invest resources”.
“We need task forces, we need experts, we need to collaborate with our European colleagues to solve this in a way that means Europe, Ireland, don’t lose out or fall behind or become beholden to the US or Chinese governments, that we’re not taking other people’s AI because they didn’t slow down. It’s not easy, but it’s a balancing act we have to face up to.”
