“I may have gotten it across poorly”: Last week, Fianna Fáil AI spokesman Naoise Ó Cearúil questioned the “appropriateness” of the State doing business with companies whose CEOs are “anti-Government” or “anti-immigration”.
This week he clarified his view in a Gript interview.
MORE: Social Democrats TD Sinead Gibney, who is also on the AI committee, responded to some of Deputy Ó Cearúil’s criticisms – her reply is included in full below.
Sinead Gibney:“The reach of tech companies into our lives is deep and the damage being caused by social media and AI is enormous. This includes a significant public health risk that has yet to be fully quantified.
I do not support the nationalisation of companies, but I do support the State flexing its muscle much more in terms of regulation. At the moment, we have a government which has presided over online spaces becoming a Wild West of lawlessness and toxicity. This has to change.
The government claims it wants to do more to regulate social media but it won’t even do the bare minimum, namely turning off recommender algorithms, which feed people toxic content, by default. So I won’t take any lectures from Deputy Ó Cearúil, who is a member of a government treating big tech with kid gloves.”