Artificial intelligence report should be wake-up call for Coalition
If you are Micheál Martin or Simon Harris, you may feel like avoiding the latest bit of research conducted by the Economic and Social Research Institute and the Department of Finance. The report provides arguably the starkest warning to date on the potential for artificial intelligence (AI) to become the proverbial meteor that could wipe out the very basis of the Irish economy, which successive governments have meticulously built over decades. “AI adoption among Irish firms is likely to lead to job losses, concentrated among highly educated workers, reflecting the strong exposure of high-skilled occupations to AI technologies,” notes the report. “If job displacement is large, however, income tax receipts will fall relative to the baseline and welfare spending will rise, putting significant pressure on the public finances.”“Back yourself”: Aimee Connolly shares her story of 10 years in businessThat is pretty straightforward language, and should be chilling for anyone in Government, or indeed anyone in the workforce today. READ MOREWithings BeamO review: Next-gen thermometer packs a punch – and a price Reaching for the next rung on the career ladder in the age of AI uncertaintyVet turns to herbal medicine to tackle pet health issuesTech problems? Even astronauts can’t outrun themUntil fairly recently, it was reasonable to be sceptical of all the hype around AI. For many, the promises of a work revolution appeared to be mostly talk. No longer. Recent developments have made clear that most professions will be altered in some form by the technology. And it is also now certain that among the roles threatened are the high-paying service economy roles that have been the bedrock of Irish economic growth since the 1980s and perhaps even more so since the 2008 crash. Already, companies are either making swingeing cuts because of AI efficiencies, or at least claiming to. Jack Dorsey’s Block plans to cut nearly half of its workforce thanks to AI improvements. Facebook owner Meta, long a keystone of the Irish economy, is reported to be planning to cut as much as a fifth of its employees for similar reasons. Dublin-headquartered global consulting giant Accenture has warned it will rid itself of staff who can’t adapt to using AI. In short, these are the kind of high-paying jobs prized in most economies and key for boosting the State’s income tax receipts. There is some hope in that those who keep their jobs are likely to earn more, but even that will only boost economic inequality, straining social cohesion. Retraining and upskilling will obviously be hugely important in the months and years ahead, but that will only do so much. If they weren’t already, alarm bells should be ringing in Government now.
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