(This article is produced by our Gaeltacht team. You can read an English version of this piece here)

THE GREATEST DANGER posed by the unstoppable wave of artificial intelligence is that the Gaeltacht community could be left at the back of the queue, as happened during the Dot Com era, the chief executive of Údarás na Gaeltachta has warned.

Tomás Ó Síocháin was speaking to The Journal to give an insight into the approach being taken by the agency, which has been responsible for economic development in Irish-speaking communities across the country for more than forty years.

He said that artificial intelligence represents an enormous opportunity for the Irish language and the Gaeltacht, noting that more than 1.9 million people in the State had indicated they had some level of Irish, and that it would be increasingly important for government and public authorities to provide services through Irish.

“As things stand at the moment, very few public services are available that are targeting those people, and there is a pressing need for that to change,” he said.

Work has already begun on this very project, with Údarás approaching Government departments and public bodies to find out what services they need and which might be suitable to be provided using artificial intelligence tools.

There was also a gathering in Galway last year attended by representatives from more than forty State bodies, with the aim of the workshop being to identify what tools would be put to use.

“Based on that feedback, it is clear to us that there is demand, it is clear to us that these tools are needed.”

He said work was already underway on this front, with the full content of the Citizens Information Board now available through Irish.

“You put a question to it, it switches to English, carries out the query, the query comes back and is spoken aloud in Irish using technology developed by Trinity College, abair.ie.

“That is a very good example of what is now possible that was not possible a few years ago.”

While Ó Síocháin acknowledges that artificial intelligence — or ‘ard intleacht’ as he calls it, to stay close to the ‘AI’ abbreviation — represents an opportunity, it is also driving concern.

His greatest worry is that the Gaeltacht community will be left at the back of the queue when it comes to benefiting from the wave of artificial intelligence heading our way.

“What is clear is that this technology is growing and developing at a ferocious pace,” he said.

“If these tools become as widespread as is being predicted, it will mean that young Irish and Gaeltacht speakers will be left at a disadvantage and will not see any value in Irish, as it will not be available on the tools they will be using in the years ahead.

“None of us has to look very far to find a young person from an Irish-speaking or Gaeltacht background who has a phone in their hand — and adults just as much — so the influence of technology of this kind is plain to see.”

He feels that the Gaeltacht was left stranded when the dot-com era emerged, and was similarly left behind when the app store opened. It has not always been the case, however, that the Gaeltacht has been at the back of the queue.

Ó Síocháin recalled that Údarás was at the forefront of investing in television production training courses and supporting independent production companies in the mid-1990s, and said that investment had borne impressive fruit, as was demonstrated in recent years when the makers of An Cailín Ciúin reached the shortlist for an Oscar — the pinnacle of film awards.

Beyond that, however, the independent production industry has been at the heart of the creative sector that has flourished in the Gaeltacht since then.

“There are in the region of 500 people working full-time in our client companies in that sector, and that is the sector where Irish is most in use,” he said, adding that almost the same number again were working part-time in the industry.

While he acknowledges that people are concerned that jobs will be put at risk by artificial intelligence, he believes the technology will free people to take on work that is perhaps more worthwhile.

“There will certainly be a change in the nature of employment, in the kind of work people do,” he said, expressing his view that it could mean “reducing paperwork and spending more time engaging with people.”

He also recognises that there are questions at a global level relating to artificial intelligence that the world will need to grapple with.

“There are questions at a global level about the use of artificial intelligence and the very real dangers associated with its use in a military context, in warfare, or the risk that it could become uncontrollable, and so on.

“I have no definitive answers to those big questions myself, but they are big questions and humanity must engage with them in a concrete way.”

Earlier this year there was controversy when Údarás announced a competition with a prize fund of €6,000 to encourage people to create videos using artificial intelligence tools. One organisation said it was an insult to the arts, arguing that artificial intelligence tools are built on the theft of artists’ real work.

The chief executive, without making direct reference to the controversy surrounding the competition, said the competition was a means of directing public attention towards the tools and what could be achieved with them.

“That is why, on a trial basis, we put it before the public saying that these tools exist and that they can be used through Irish.”

He recalled the time when he was a reporter with Nuacht TG4/RTÉ and there were two workstations in the back of a car for editing items for the various news bulletins.
“Fifteen years later when I was finishing up, you were able to do the same thing on a phone.”

In addition to this, Ó Síocháin noted that an investment had been announced by Údarás alongside TG4 around the same time as the competition announcement — a significant investment in the audiovisual sector.

The announcement indicated that both Údarás and TG4 were each investing €600,000 in the sector annually over three years, a total investment of €4.8 million, to advance that thriving Gaeltacht sector.

Later on the day The Journal conducted the interview, in the Údarás headquarters in Na Forbacha,  an event was held across the road at the Connemara Coast Hotel to present prizes to the winners of that competition.

A variety of subject matter, styles and standards was evident in the entries that were shown. In total there were around a dozen entries, some better than others.

The artificial intelligence industry is only in its infancy. It will be interesting to see the number and quality of entries to that competition next year, if it is decided to proceed with it.

The Journal’s Gaeltacht initiative is supported by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme