World leaders are concerned about impact of AI, Taoiseach says

Taoiseach Micheál Martin has said many states are now worried about the impact of AI on the world.

The Taoiseach said artificial intelligence will be a key talking point at the United Nations General Assembly high-level week in New York this week.

Speaking at Government Buildings ahead of Cabinet on Monday, he said: “AI will also emerge (as a talking point at the meeting).

“Quite a number of states are now quite concerned, in terms of what we’re reading in the last number of weeks, in terms of the challenges that AI could present ultimately to the world.”
The Taoiseach and several Government ministers will travel to New York on Monday for the 81st UN high-level week.

He is among 130 heads of state and government who will address the assembly at the annual gathering of presidents, prime ministers and other senior officials.

Mr Martin said talks on war and instability in the Middle East and Ukraine will be among the events he will be attending.

He said: “The main focus is to try and reassert multilateralism in respect to conflict and war all over the world.

“I will try and get a read from the UN agencies in respect of the situation in Gaza and on the West Bank, and we’ll be meeting a number of interlocutors from the Middle East, but also then in terms of Ukraine.”

The Taoiseach said one of the challenges of the assembly, with the scale of conflict in the world, is to ensure humanitarian issues in Palestine remain in the spotlight.

“A peace of a sort was brokered in Gaza, but the destruction of Gaza continues,” he said.

“The prevention of humanitarian aid to get to Palestinians in Gaza is shocking. I mean, the level of it, and shelter, in particular, as they come into the winter period, is urgently required.

“Some degree of stability and a civilian administration needs to be put in place. But Israel seems to be stalling.”