TAOISEACH SIMON HARRIS has said that advancements in artificial intelligence are more like “scientific discovery than engineering”, following a meeting in New York with OpenAI ceo Sam Altman.

OpenAI opened their first Irish office in Dublin last year.

Harris said that today’s meeting came at Altman’s request but that he was more than happy to meet with him while in New York.

“We just had an initial conversation about how he was finding the office operating in Ireland. I really wanted to hear from the industry perspective in terms of where they see things going,” Harris said.

He said the meeting was “very interesting” and that overall he “got the distinct impression that they’re pleased to be based in Ireland. They wish to do more in Ireland”.

“It’s likely that that office will grow further in size in the time ahead,” Harris said.

“I think the very honest takeaway is that whether you’re a policymaker or whether you’re an industry leader, this is evolving at such fast speeds. It’s more like scientific discovery than engineering.

“I think it’s really important that industry and policymakers continue to keep lines of communication open,” he said.

He said that the existence of the EU’s AI Act was a significant incentive not found in other jurisdictions for companies looking for somewhere to set up.

“We obviously now need to transpose that at an Irish level,” he said.

The meeting comes amid a number of AI related controversies in Ireland.

On 12 September, the Data Protection Commission launched a probe into Google’s AI model, over concerns on how it was storing users’ data.

Earlier this month, a deepfake video, produced using AI, was circulated of the Taoiseach which showed him congratulating anti-immigrant groups.

The Taoiseach also said that he had engaged with the Governer of New York, Kathy Hochul, on the issue of child online safety, particularly around social media.

“I’m really impressed by her leadership in this state. We had a very good online safety summit in Government Buildings, and we’re now putting in place a binding code by the end of the year.

“I know the governer has done some interesting things here in terms of protecting children, particularly at night time, and I know the governer is also looking at things arond a ban in schools on the likes of smartphones.

“We’ll continue to keep track of this and see what we can learn from each other,” he said.