AI won’t develop itself, you know: why we need a national AI strategy

A public consultation on the development of a national strategy on AI concluded in November. The commitment to developing such a strategy was contained in Future Jobs Ireland 2019, published in March. The Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation is leading the development of the strategy, which will provide high-level direction for the design, development and adoption of AI in Ireland. The strategy is anticipated to be finalised by year-end, with a launch in early 2020.

Launching the consultation, Pat Breen, Minister of State for EU Digital Single Market and Data Protection, said: “The development of a national AI strategy is an important milestone. AI is bringing, and will continue to bring, huge benefits to individuals, businesses and communities throughout Ireland, but there are also a number of challenges that we face in adopting AI technologies.”

“The government wants to put together a strategy to shape the future direction of the development, adoption and implementation of AI in Ireland,” says Brian McElligott, a partner in Mason Hayes & Curran. “There is a sense that we could be lagging behind and need to up our game.”

‘Sandbox’

He believes AI presents significant opportunities for Ireland. “We are a relatively small and agile nation,” he says. “We can act as a sort of sandbox for AI use cases. We have a relatively small population and we could roll out AI technologies across the island to test them.”

In this sense, Ireland is small enough to test yet big enough to prove new technologies. “We can leverage our expertise in traditional industry sectors like agriculture, food and tourism industries, and apply new AI solutions to them.”

We've got to make sure that State backing goes to real AI research projects. There is a balance to be struck

He is encouraged by the progress being made towards the development of a national strategy. “I attended a workshop on the development of the strategy run by the department back in September. Everyone there was well up on the issues and challenges we face. For example, you can’t just go out and share people’s health data. Everyone is pro-privacy, but there are use cases where population-level datasets should be shared. The Government won’t necessarily have a regulatory or legislative role; that will come from the EU. Its role will be more on the investment side.”

By that he means investment in the development of the infrastructure required to establish Ireland as a location for AI development. There is already quite a well-developed AI ecosystem here with strong industry involvement.

‘Industry views’

"AI Ireland is a not-for-profit organisation whose aim is to showcase the work of companies and individuals who are applying artificial intelligence in both commercial and academic contexts," McElligott notes. "And the way the State has responded to industry views has been very good. The Masters in AI in the University of Limerick was established with the support of the IDA and Skillnet Ireland. Industry had expressed a concern that there was a shortage of AI skills and challenges in getting the right people. Within 12 to 15 months the course was in place. That was very impressive."

There is also a concern that investment goes into genuine AI.

“People claim something is AI when it is really just analytics. We’ve got to make sure that State backing goes to real AI research projects. There is a balance to be struck.”

The development of those skills and the research base is already paying dividends, he believes. "We have a San Francisco office and our people there are engaging with big US technology firms. Up until two years ago a lot of the interest in Ireland was related to the tax base. That's no longer the primary driver. They are really interested in the tech talent they can find here. That's why companies like Renttherunway, Valeo and Jaguar Land Rover are setting up R&D centres here. MasterCard's biggest innovation lab anywhere in the world is located in Dublin's docklands. Having a national AI strategy will help us build on that."