Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 10 April 2025
251. Deputy James Geoghegan asked the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media if he will identify any projects which the Department has underway with CeADAR, Ireland’s national centre for AI; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18385/25]
Amharc ar fhreagra252. Deputy James Geoghegan asked the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media if he will identify any projects which a body under the aegis of his Department has underway with CeADAR, Ireland’s national centre for AI; if he will send this question to the bodies for direct response; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18403/25]
Amharc ar fhreagra253. Deputy James Geoghegan asked the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media if he will specify the specific policy areas where the Department is examining future use of AI; if he will identify what entities the Department is working with, public or private, in relation to this examination; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18420/25]
Amharc ar fhreagraI propose to take Questions Nos. 251, 252 and 253 together.
My Department does not have any projects underway with CeADAR. Regarding the bodies under the aegis of my Department, this would be an operational matter for the bodies themselves.
The policy areas where my Department is examining future use of AI, and the entities my Department is working with in this regard, are set out below.
• National Archives of Ireland.
• The National Archives of Ireland is currently examining the use of Robotic Automation for transcription of large data sets including the Census 1926 and are working with Deloitte and UiPath in this regard.
• European Digital Infrastructure Consortium (ALT-EDIC).
• My Department is examining the use of AI in enhancing language technologies, with a particular focus on the needs of lesser-used languages. In 2024, Ireland was a founding member of ALT-EDIC, which is a European Digital Infrastructure Consortium. Its aims are to address the shortage of data training in European languages and bring life to a European-wide technology centre to develop a common infrastructure in the field of natural language processing and large multi-language models (LLMs). My Department continues to be actively engaged in the development of ALT-EDIC, which now numbers 17 Member States and 8 observers.
• Ard-Intleacht (AI) na Gaeilge.
• My Department is also supporting Údarás na Gaeltachta in undertaking the Ard-Intleacht (AI) na Gaeilge initiative. The tool in development will be able to understand Irish and respond in clean, canonical Irish, over time, drawing on the State's extensive pool of Irish language content, including archive, audio and video recordings and will be able to work with any AI product on the market. The end result is expected to be a platform and tool that will support state agencies in offering high quality services in Irish to the public.
