In a 73-page document, the Strategy has three key principles of Building public trust in AI, Leveraging AI for economic and societal benefit, and Enablers for AI. The key aspects were detailed with eight actionable corresponding strands ranging from how to engage and raise awareness of the public about AI, to building a strong AI innovation ecosystem, to nurturing and developing AI skills and talents.

Following the European approaches of ethical, human-centred, and trustworthy AI, “The [Irish] National AI Strategy will serve as a roadmap to an ethical, trustworthy and human-centric design, development, deployment and governance of AI to ensure Ireland can unleash the potential that AI can provide,” wrote in the Strategy by Minister of State for Trade Promotion, Digital and Company Regulation Robert Troy T.D.

“Underpinning our Strategy are three core principles to best embrace the opportunities of AI – adopting a human-centric approach to the application of AI; staying open and adaptable to innovations; and ensuring good governance to build trust and confidence for innovation to flourish, because ultimately if AI is to be truly inclusive and have a positive impact on all of us, we need to be clear on its role in our society and ensure that trust is the ultimate marker of success,” wrote Minister Robert Troy in the Strategy.

The three key principles are: Building public trust in AI includes Strand 1: AI and society and Strand 2: A governance ecosystem that promotes trustworthy AI. Secondly, Leveraging AI for economic and societal benefit includes Strand 3: Driving adoption of AI in Irish enterprise Strand 4: AI serving the public. Thirdly, Enablers for AI includes Strand 5: A strong AI innovation ecosystem Strand 6: AI education, skills and talent Strand 7: A supportive and secure infrastructure for AI Strand 8: Implementing the Strategy.

Each of the strands has clear objectives and associated actions to be carried out by governmental departments, ministries, and public organisations. The actions are both clear-cut and collaborative among government agencies and with industry, international and civic organisations. They reflected the careful consultation processes before the release of the Strategy.

The AI4EU Connection

AI4EU Work Package 4 leader University College Cork (UCC), led by Prof Barry O’Sullivan, was one of the named contributors in several key areas of the strategy.

UCC collaborate with the University of Helsinki and Reaktor, a Finnish technology company, to bring the “Elements of AI” Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) – at https://www.elementsofai.com/ie – a free online course through a dedicated portal. Aiming to encourage everyone, regardless of age or educational background, to learn the basics of AI, UCC award a certificate of completion for those who complete the course, which equips learners to become familiar with many key concepts from the field of AI. An Irish language version of the course has been created and will be formally launched in 2021, enabling more inclusivity for Irish learners.

UCC also host, on behalf of the European Commission, the web-based version of the Assessment List for Trustworthy AI (ALTAI), a checklist of questions for businesses and organisations to assess whether the AI system that is being developed, deployed, or procured adheres to the seven requirements of Trustworthy AI, as specified in the EU AI HLEG Ethics Guidelines.

The tool, available at: http://altai.insight-centre.org, supports all users wishing to assess their AI systems and products before and during their various development stages to use a dynamic checklist associated with the seven requirements of trustworthy AI. The EU Guidelines’ seven requirements are Human agency and oversight; Technical robustness and safety; Privacy and data governance; Transparency; Diversity, non-discrimination, and fairness; Environmental and societal well-being; and Accountability.

“At UCC, we're ready to deliver on the expectations set out for us by [the] Government in [the] Ireland's National AI Strategy to support the responsible and ethical use and governance of all AI developed for and used by the public service in Ireland,” wrote Prof O’Sullivan in response to a coordinated approach to AI adoption by the public service set out in the Strategy.

UCC is also home to the Science Foundation Ireland Centre for Research Training in Artificial Intelligence which has funding to support 120 PhD students to study AI. The CRT-AI is one of six such centres. The SFI CRTs represent a €104 million investment from Science Foundation Ireland. Collaborations include eleven different higher education institutions from across Ireland, and over 90 industry partners which include large, multinational corporations, SMEs and private foundations.

Ireland’s National AI Strategy encourages universities, technology institutes and colleges to take a coordinated approach to deliver AI education and training programmes while employers will be assisted to expand workplace-focused AI upskilling and reskilling, including through apprenticeships, Skillnet Ireland training programmes and enterprise partnership schemes.

On infrastructures that support the National AI Strategy, the Irish government also outlined its plans to create world-class data, digital and connectivity infrastructures for driving AI development and adoption in Ireland, where it positioned as a trustworthy data governance hub. The Government also intends to make more public sector data openly, safely, and securely available and will facilitate the development of trusted data sharing mechanisms and research environments to enable access to data and collaboration across different organisations