Minister says AI risks will be assessed after warning technology could ‘kill all humans’
Enterprise minister Peter Burke said the Government must make sure that 'appropriate safeguards and guidelines' are in place. Picture: Cillian Sherlock/PA Wire
The enterprise minister has said he will not “put in a formal request” to the Government’s artificial intelligence office to investigate experts’ suggestions that AI could wipe out humankind in the next decade.
Speaking at the Fine Gael think-in in Gorey, Co Wexford, Peter Burke, who oversees the department with responsibility for artificial intelligence (AI), said the Government must make sure that “appropriate safeguards and guidelines” are in place.
However, he said that “risk models” will be conducted.
Earlier this week, Evan Hubbinger, a safety researcher at Anthropic, warned that he believed there was a 10% chance that AI could “kill all humans” in the next decade.
When asked if he would task the National AI Office with examining these comments, Mr Burke said he would not be submitting a “formal request” as it was an “independent office”.
“That’s what one person said,” he said.
“Essentially, we have to assess these things. We have to ensure that we are compliant with the law, which is very robust in Europe.
“One thing about Europe, it's been challenged, is that the regulation has been very strongly, and we've come forward early and quickly, and then we have reassessed it because AI is moving so fast; change is happening, almost by the day in relation to artificial intelligence.”
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Mr Burke said that AI is “here to stay” and that appropriate “safeguards” have to be put in place, as he vowed that the AI will “essentially do a risk model on some of the advancements that are happening, but also look at the opportunity”.
“There's a huge amount of opportunity in AI, and there are equally very significant challenges, particularly from our labour market in the first instance,” he said.
“That's the first challenge we're going to and are currently grappling with.
“When you see, the period of transition that our labour market is in right now before our eyes, when you see the collective redundancies that are coming in in key vulnerable areas, and that's why, as a Government, what we're doing is we're looking down the road.”
Elsewhere, Mr Burke called for Ryanair chief Michael O’Leary to apologise over comments he made trivialising rape.
Mr O’Leary repeatedly referred to other airlines as “high-fare rapists” at a press conference in Dublin on Thursday.
He told reporters at the company’s headquarters: “You might find some people will choose not to fly with Ryanair – but you know they’ll be overrun with the people abandoning Aer Lingus, Lufthansa, BA, and others desperate to get to Ryanair’s low fares because they can’t afford to fly with the high-fare rapists around Europe.”
He later repeated the “high-fare rapists” comments.
Asked whether this was appropriate language, Mr O’Leary told reporters: “Absolutely.”
In 2024, Mr O’Leary found himself in further hot water when he made comments at the launch of Mr Burke’s general election campaign about teachers.
Speaking at the Fine Gael think-in, Mr Burke called on Mr O’Leary to apologise over the “rapist” remarks.
“We should never trivialise sexual violence in this country,” he said.
“I think the comments were not appropriate. Victims of sexual crimes deserve our respect, deserve our support, and we've heard a number of agencies who do that support and work in the field really say how hurtful it has been.
“I think Michael should reflect on those comments. I think he should apologise.”
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