The Cabinet has agreed to create a new office to co-ordinate the regulation of artificial intelligence and to run campaigns to help businesses and wider society adapt to the rapid roll-out of the technology.
A flagship international AI summit is also to be held in the State during Ireland’s presidency of the Council of the European Union under the measures agreed by Ministers on Tuesday.
After Taoiseach Micheál Martin warned last week of job losses and industry upheaval in the coming years due to the arrival of AI, the Cabinet approved a report by the National Economic Social Council (Nesc) on guiding the “safe and responsible development and use of AI in Ireland”.
Nesc, an advisory body in the Department of the Taoiseach, is chaired by the country’s top civil servant, John Callinan, and includes representatives of business, trade unions and other sectoral interests.
The report evaluates the challenges and opportunities presented by AI and sets out a path for a State response. It underlines the threat to jobs the Taoiseach warned about last week, citing a study by officials that estimates “63 per cent of Irish employment lies in highly AI-exposed occupations”.
It says AI exposure “is polarised”, with a significant share of workers in administrative and support roles “facing greater displacement risks”.
“Women are disproportionately represented in the higher-risk cohort, reflecting a larger share of female workers in administrative roles,” it says.
Analysis by the Department of Finance has already found evidence of an AI effect, suggesting “significantly weaker employment growth over the past two years in AI-exposed sectors as compared to sectors with lower relative exposure. This trend is more pronounced for younger workers.”
The report also notes challenges for public discourse and democracy because of AI hugely increasing the potential for misinformation and disinformation on a large scale.
[ AI boom threatens to cause ‘significant upheaval’ for Irish tech jobsOpens in new window ]
Referring to the recent controversy over the “nudification” function on X’s Grok service – where the technology would produce naked versions of photographs of people – it found that “in an 11-day period, Grok generated an estimated three million sexualised and violent images, including approximately 23,000 depicting children, at a rate of around 190 images per minute”.
The report says “a significant proportion of the material remained publicly accessible” even after posts were removed.
“The initial response from X was to restrict the feature to paid users and to implement geoblocking in certain jurisdictions; a move widely criticised as insufficient. Following continued pressure from Irish and European regulators as well as the public outcry, X introduced more substantive technical measures worldwide to prevent the AI model’s ability to ‘undress’ individuals.”
In response, the European Commission instigated an investigation into X.
The report suggests that the Government should be guided by five priority areas in its response to AI: responsible and strategic adoption, trustworthy and ethical practice, anticipatory governance, AI literacy, and public legitimacy.
In addition, the Government has committed to the adoption of 90 “deliverables”, which cross several departments and agencies.
They include a new AI advisory unit and a national AI fellowship programme for the public sector; a plan to encourage business to adopt AI, with “AI champions” to highlight opportunities; and an “Observatory for Business AI Readiness” to measure and monitor enterprise use of AI in Ireland.
Other measures include an “AI in Research” transformation programme and the establishment of an internationally leading AI research body; the establishment of an AI Office of Ireland as the central co-ordinating authority for the EU AI Act, and an “online one-stop-shop AI Skilling Platform” for employers and individuals.