Everyone knows artificial intelligence (AI) is going to change our lives, but nobody is sure exactly how. That’s one of Cliff Taylor’s observations in a thought-provoking column this weekend on how the current AI boom recalls the chaotic days of the early internet. Just as in the 1990s, when the revolutionary potential of the “world-wide web” was immediately apparent, Taylor notes, huge sums are being invested in AI infrastructure not necessarily because of any productivity or effectiveness gains it is delivering now but in the hope of future profitability.
“Senior business executives talk of little else, but many are still trying to work out what it will mean for their companies,” he writes. “And like back in 2000, there are questions about the amounts of money being spent.” Nobody with even a casual awareness of the history of the tech sector will need to be reminded of what came of that dot-com bubble.
Ireland is exposed to the coming upheaval. The State is reliant on the jobs and tax euros that companies such as Intel, Microsoft and Meta provide. Already there is evidence that recruitment in some areas is slowing down. Just recently Meta announced it would reduce its staff numbers in Ireland by 20 per cent - a decision attributed to the company’s need to find funds for AI investment. The headline on Taylor’s piece sums it up well: “AI is moving fast. Official Ireland is not.”
Seldom does a day pass without The Irish Times publishing a couple of articles on AI, such is the wide-ranging importance of the topic. Our Work Correspondent, Emmet Malone, has been exploring its impact on companies and their staff, and his latest article notes that one of Ireland’s main employers’ groups believes “100 per cent” of jobs are likely to be affected by AI in some way.
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Pope Leo inserted himself into the global AI debate this week when he published an encyclical - the first of his papacy - on the topic. It speaks of the risk of the “social calamity” of mass unemployment, worsened economic inequality if the technologies are kept in the hands of the few, the potential for discrimination in algorithms, and AI weaponry that could lower “the moral threshold of conflict”.
But the encyclical urges readers not to become fatalistically resigned. “No one is without responsibility. We all have our own areas for action,” it reads.
In her fascinating piece on the background to the encyclical, Europe Correspondent Naomi O’Leary explains that the Vatican’s reflection on AI began a decade ago, when senior Catholic officials met Silicon Valley executives at the Dominican library in Rome to discuss the ethical implications of the then-nascent technology. One of those present was Bishop Paul Tighe, an Irish senior Vatican official who was involved in the discussions.
“They wanted to alert us to something that was coming,” he tells O’Leary.
“We had some very senior people, and it became very clear that this was genuinely taking off, and they were surprised at the rate of development…
“That’s the thing that struck me at the time – the pace at which it was developing, and also the range of areas where it would be relevant ... You realise that this wasn’t just going to have an impact in the narrow area of AI, but was going to be transformative.”
Elsewhere on the site this weekend, Conor Lally reports on a disturbing rise in the number of attacks on vacant Dublin council homes by the far-right; Ellen Coyne writes of rancour within the Irish left after two byelections that seem to have severed a tentative left-wing alliance; and Seanín Graham has the latest from the trial of former DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson.
We also have the news that 80 per cent of Irish-made alumina went to Russia in the first quarter of this year, by far the highest amount since Moscow’s all-out invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
The revelation is timely because on Friday Taoiseach Micheál Martin argued that sanctioning Aughinish Alumina, the only producer of alumina in Ireland, would cause more harm to the European Union than to Russia.
We also report that the Russian company has been intensively lobbying the Government since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, warning repeatedly of the risk to employment at its plant in Co Limerick.
In March, an Irish Times investigation, carried out in co-operation with the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, found that Aughinish’s Co Limerick plant is shipping vast amounts of alumina to smelters in Russia, where it is used to make aluminium, which is then sold to a trading company, ASK, that supplies dozens of Russian arms manufacturers.
According to lobbying register returns and the Department of An Taoiseach, the head of Aughinish Alumina called the Taoiseach’s chief of staff after the publication of the Irish Times investigation. Its contacts with Government were to provide an update on “the ongoing risks to employment”, the company said.
Many of you will know Emily O’Reilly from her time as Ombudsman - first for Ireland, then the European Union - or as a talented reporter earlier in her career. This weekend she writes an essay on a personal theme: the death of her brother Brian and her efforts to find out more about the cause of his death. It’s a moving piece of work and well worth a read.
In the World section, Jack Power and Derek Scally look at how Europe is preparing for the possibility of talks with Vladimir Putin over the future of Ukraine, and Keith Duggan reminds us of Donald Trump’s remarkable endorsement streak.
On Thursday, prompted by the scenes between Kerry and Donegal last weekend, Paul Doyle wrote about the “dangerously stupid culture” of violence in the GAA. We asked readers for their views on violence in Ireland’s national games, and we got a huge response - brought together here by Muireann Duffy.
You’ll find some strong interviews across the site this weekend; my favourites were these conversations with Maggie O’Farrell, William Dalrymple, Marty Whelan and Neil Hannon.
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