Leaders share healthcare and efficiency hopes for AI at British-Irish Council

By Gráinne Ní Aodha and David Young, PA

British and Irish political leaders discussed the potential of AI at a conference in Co Down on Friday.

There was a particular focus on artificial intelligence at the 43rd meeting of the British-Irish Council (BIC), which was established as part of the Good Friday Agreement.

Leaders discussed the potential of AI to enhance cancer screenings and help address the challenges of aging populations.

At a press conference which was dominated by issues including race riots in Ballymena and legacy issues, political leaders were asked about the threat AI poses to jobs.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin said he had a “glass half full” approach to AI and technology, but said it “will change the nature of work”.

“I remember the 1980s when I was a young, emerging politician, I picked up a book on the bookshelf called The Jobs Crisis by the late Colm Keane.

“In that book, he was predicting that we would have to train and educate for leisure, that at best, we would be working about three days a week because of the technological revolution that was then about to happen.

“And then Jack Charlton took over the Irish (football) team, and we did very well in Italia 1990 and the Irish economy took off, and lots more jobs came on stream.

“I’m not being facetious, but I’m wary of the prophets of doom about technological change.

“We’ve had waves of technological change throughout history that have changed the nature of work, but actually created new opportunities for different kinds of work.

“So I would be the glass-half-full person here saying there will be different type of work.”

Northern Ireland First Minister Michelle O’Neill said governments would need to work with trade unions to “take workers with us”.

“It has to be of benefit, and it has to assist. It can’t be a replacement of what we do traditionally,” she said.

“Some of the examples that we’ve cited today are around breast screening and how that can be done efficiently with AI supporting an individual.”

Northern Ireland deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly said AI was developing at a “remarkable rate”.

She said they needed to “seize the opportunity” while being aware of the risks and ethical concerns.

“The reality is that the AI revolution is happening. We can’t ignore that,” she said.

“That’s why Michelle and I have created the AI unit right at the heart of government to take a look at how we can harness the potential of that, particularly in public services.

“We do need our public services to be more efficient. We need that increased productivity.

“But yes, you’re absolutely right. For a lot of people, there will be an apprehension that this is about replacing people with that technology.”

She added: “This is not about just simply getting rid of people and making them redundant. This is about doing things better and harnessing an agenda which is happening at the moment. We cannot deny that reality.”

Scottish First Minister John Swinney said one of the challenges facing Scotland is the size of its working age population.

“So there is obviously a debate which we are engaged in about the importance of migration, because we value that, and we think it’s important.

“We’ve lost a lot of the opportunities for that because of Brexit.

“But what AI provides the ability to do is to, for example, address some of the limitations and restrictions of our working age population, to enable us to meet need and demand within society, particularly in relation to some of the innovations we talked about in relation to health screening and the use of AI for early intervention to reduce demand on health services and to and to fill gaps in provisions.

“There are multiple challenges that will come at governments, one of which will be the ethics and the deployment of AI, but they’ll also collide with other issues such as the challenges of the size of our working age population, which for Scotland, is a very significant strategic issue that we are trying to address.”

Northern Ireland Secretary Hilary Benn, Ireland’s deputy premier Simon Harris and representatives of the Governments of Wales, Jersey and the Isle of Man also attended the conference in Co Down.

Mr Martin said relations across the islands are in “a good place” but more can be done to “deepen cooperation and unlock potential” to everyone’s benefit.