Irish Examiner view: Political drift may reshape landscape

The main political parties have had much to digest from the Irish Examiner Rural Ireland Thinks poll 

voters are now seeking out Independent TDs 'who, by their very nature, have the freedom to be more radical and outspoken in their views and policies'.

This week, readers have been digesting the results of the Irish Examiner Rural Ireland Thinks poll, which has yielded fascinating insights into the political priorities of people across the country.

Or voters, as they are also known. The main political parties have also had much to digest from the poll because, as Political Editor Elaine Loughlin pointed out, voters are now seeking out Independent TDs “who, by their very nature, have the freedom to be more radical and outspoken in their views and policies”.

This is true, and there is no shortage of evidence that deputies who do not have to adhere to party disciplinary guidelines are less constrained in their comments.

What is also worth considering, however, is the hyper-local appeal of many such Independent TDs. For many of them, their focus is exclusively on their own constituency, and perhaps even on particular parts of that constituency. The term ‘parish pump politics’ is often used in a derogatory way, but assiduous constituency care is necessary, if not actually mandatory, for survival in our political system.

The fact that the survey reveals a significant level of dissatisfaction among rural voters makes that constituency focus even more important.

Rural dwellers’ unhappiness with mainstream politics — and politicians— translates into bad news for the current
Coalition: Six in 10 of those surveyed said the current Government does not reflect their priorities or perspectives. That percentage mirrors the two thirds of those surveyed who felt that Independent TDs represent them best.

There will be a good deal of focus on some of the other headline findings in the survey, such as the number of voters who wish to see Micheál Martin step aside as Taoiseach.

However, if the drift from political parties to Independent politicians continues, then it has the potential to remake the political landscape entirely at the next general election — and to make it even more difficult to form a government afterwards.

Governments must step in to curb AI

Fears about the onrushing wave of artificial intelligence (AI) gathered strength in recent days with the publication of a stark warning from one of the leaders in the field, Dario Amodei.

The CEO of Anthropic, Amodei has published an essay entitled We Must Pace The Frontier, which calls for the pace of AI development to slow down.

“I believe that if slowing down bought us even an extra year or two before models reach critical levels of capability, and we used that time to advance alignment, we could greatly reduce the risk that something goes seriously wrong,” said Amodei.

This is an extraordinary statement, and not just because it calls for scientific progress to be deliberately stalled due to well-founded safety concerns.

That is remarkable enough, but those who have expressed their support for Amodei’s views have strengthened his credibility.

Elon Musk of SpaceXAI posted his agreement online, saying “Dario is right”, while Sam Altman of ChatGPT creator OpenAI said: “I agree with Dario that we need to pace the frontier.”

The fact that Mr Altman supports slowing down AI development may not surprise observers after ChatGPT hacked into another organisation on its own last July in what the company described as an “unprecedented cyber incident”.

It is difficult to come up with a precedent for this case, one in which private companies promote and develop a technology which has been criticised for being unethical, environmentally unfriendly, misleading, and unreliable. The widespread use and adoption of this technology has now led us to a place where its very promoters and developers are seeking to halt its progress.

But acknowledging the dangers is one thing, forcing the tech giants to act is entirely different, and this is where governments need to step in — they have a duty of care to do so.

This has the makings of an outlandish science fiction plot, but unfortunately it has become our reality.

Organisers deserve credit

Yesterday saw the start of the National Ploughing Championships in Screggan, near Tullamore in Offaly, though that bald description hardly does justice to the undertaking.

It’s expected that at least a quarter of a million people will make the journey to the event, which runs over three days.

In the competitive sense alone, it involves over 350 contestants striving to win a host of titles on 180 acres of land, including the Five Nations Ploughing Competition which features participants from Ireland, England, Wales, and Scotland.

Several significant livestock competitions will also be held there this week, including the All-Ireland Aberdeen Angus Finals. Rather than describing it as a country version of Electric Picnic, perhaps ‘Cowchella’ would be more accurate. Whether visitors are directly involved in agriculture or not, they should certainly check out the National Brown Bread Baking Competition.

For many visitors, the event is also a gathering of 1,700 stalls and exhibitors displaying a dizzying array of goods, equipment, food, livestock, and services, not all of which have a direct relationship with ploughing, or even agriculture.

The championships have become a significant feature on almost every calendar in the country; what other event this week would draw the President, Taoiseach, and Tánaiste, as well as most of the Cabinet?

The organisers are to be commended on running this event so well every year, and meeting challenges such as handling 400 acres of car parking.

Given that level of efficiency, perhaps they should be entrusted with other seemingly intractable problems.

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