6th November 2024 |
Reports
The members of the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Advisory Council represent a spectrum of experience and expertise from academia, business, law, security, social sciences, economics and civil society.
The AI Advisory Council was established in January 2024 following a call for expressions of interest for an initial period of two years, to provide independent expert advice to government on artificial intelligence policy. Following a further call for expressions of interest, the membership of the AI Advisory Council was updated in November 2024.
The AI Advisory Council is tasked with the following functions:
- Providing expert guidance, insights, and recommendations in response to specific requests from government on emerging issues in artificial intelligence.
- Developing and delivering its own workplan of advice to government on issues in artificial intelligence policy which it deems of particular priority in the current and future AI landscape, providing insights on trends, opportunities and challenges.
- Engaging in public communications aimed at demystifying and promoting trustworthy, ethical and person-centred AI. This may include media interviews, participation in public and sectoral events, or other communications activity.
A Secretariat is provided by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment and correspondence for the members of the AI Advisory Council can be addressed to AIStrategy@enterprise.gov.ie.
Members
Dr Patricia Scanlon
Dr Patricia Scanlon is Chair of the Artificial Intelligence Advisory Council. She is Founder and Executive Chair of SoapBox Labs, a leading provider of proprietary voice technology for children. She holds a PhD and has over 20 years experience working in speech recognition and AI technology, including at Bell Labs and IBM. She has served as Ireland’s AI Ambassador since 2022.
Prof. Deirdre Ahern
Prof. Deirdre Ahern is a Professor of Law and Director of the Technologies, Law and Society Research Group at the School of Law, Trinity College Dublin. She previously led a research team at the Law Reform Commission. She is a member of the Royal Irish Academy's Ethics, Politics, Law and Philosophy Committee and a Fellow of the Information Society Law Centre at the University of Milan. Her research interests have a focus on regulatory policy and corporate governance of new technologies, in particular AI, on which she is a regular speaker.
Dr Abeba Birhane
Dr Abeba Birhane is a cognitive scientist, currently a Senior Advisor in AI Accountability at Mozilla Foundation and Leader of the AI Accountability Lab at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland. She researches human behaviour, social systems, and responsible and ethical AI. Birhane also served on the United Nations Secretary-General’s High Level Advisory Body on AI.
Mr Sean Blanchfield
Mr Sean Blanchfield is an experienced entrepreneur and business leader with a deep technology background. Having been founder and CTO of a number of Irish startups (including Phorest, Demonware and PageFair), he was previously Entrepreneur in Residence and Accelerator Director in the NDRC. He is currently co-founder and CEO of Jentic, an AI startup.
Mr Bernard Harbor
Mr Bernard Harbor was formerly head of communications and media relations at Fórsa, where he supervised research that underpinned the union’s policy on automation. He has a deep familiarity with industrial relations, the public sector, and the Irish and international media. He has been a member of the ICTU Executive Council and is currently a Governor of the Irish Times Trust. He is a Life Fellow of the Public Relations Institute of Ireland (PRII) and a member of the Board of TASC, Ireland's think tank for action on social change.
Dr Susan Leavy
Dr Susan Leavy is an Assistant Professor with the School of Information and Communication Studies at University College Dublin with research interests in artificial intelligence, language processing, social science and AI ethics. She is also one of Ireland’s nominees to the Global Partnership in AI. Susan is a funded investigator with Insight SFI Research Centre for Data Analytics and is leading several projects on trustworthy AI.
Dr Luca Marchesotti
Dr Luca Marchesotti has 25 years of experience in artificial intelligence, spanning academia, corporate R&D and startups. As the CEO and AI Architect of Gemmo.ai, a bespoke AI solutions company, he helps businesses to amplify human intelligence through a secure and ethical approach to AI.
Mr Ronan Murphy
Mr Ronan Murphy is Founder and Executive Chairman of Smarttech247 (an AI powered cybersecurity enterprise) and is Founder of GetVisibility (an AI-driven data security enterprise). He is an expert in the areas of corporate and enterprise security, development of cyber defence programs, business operations protection and protection of critical infrastructure technologies.
Prof. Barry O’Sullivan
Prof. Barry O’Sullivan is an award-winning academic working in the fields of artificial intelligence, constraint programming, operations research, AI/data ethics, and public policy. He contributes to several global Track II AI diplomacy efforts at the interface of military, defence, intelligence and AI. He was Vice Chair of the European Commission High-Level Expert Group on AI and is a member of the Digital Group at the Institute of International and European Affairs (IIEA).
Ms Emma Redmond
Ms Emma Redmond has a background at the intersection of technology and law including at LinkedIn and Stripe and is currently Associate General Counsel, Head of EU Privacy and Data Protection at OpenAI and the first member of the growing OpenAI team in Ireland. Emma is an Adjunct Associate Professor of Law at University College Dublin.
Ms Bronagh Riordan
Ms Bronagh Riordan is Head of Data and Analytics for Irish international retailer Primark, and Chair of the Industry Steering Board for CeADAR, Ireland's national centre for Applied Data Analytics, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning and Irelands Digital Innovation Hub for Europe. She is also a UK and Ireland Chief Data Officer governing body member for Evanta. She has more than 20 years’ experience in Data, Analytics and AI and prior to joining Primark, held senior positions across industry including Director of Global Analytics Centre of Excellence for Deutsche Bank and Head of Data Science for CarTrawler.
Mr Jonathan Ruane
Mr Jonathan Ruane is a Lecturer in Global Economics and Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and a Research Scientist at MIT’s Initiative on the Digital Economy. His expertise is at the intersection of digital technologies and international markets. He co-founded MIT’s Global Business of AI and Robotics graduate course, is a Faculty Director at MIT Sloan Executive Education and a Principal Investigator and Director of Societal Impacts Research at the US Centre for Quantum Networks (NSF funded).
Ms Sasha Rubel
Ms Sasha Rubel is Head of Public Policy for Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning at Amazon Web Services (AWS) for Europe, Middle East and Africa. She previously worked at UNESCO on AI and digital innovation, is involved in international AI governance initiatives, and is a member of the OECD AI Network of Experts.
Dr Barry Scannell
Dr Barry Scannell is a Partner in the Technology Group of law firm William Fry, where his work is focussed on AI law. He was previously Director of Legal Affairs and Regulatory Compliance at the Irish Music Rights Organisation. He has extensive experience in public communications around AI issues, and in particular, advising on the legal implications of AI technologies. Barry has a PhD on AI and copyright from UCC.
Prof. Alan Smeaton
Prof. Alan Smeaton is Professor of Computing at Dublin City University and was a founding director of Insight SFI Research Centre for Data Analytics. He is a member of the Royal Irish Academy and an Academy Gold Medal winner. He has extensive experience in applications and innovations of AI in areas such as computer vision, machine learning, wearables, lifelogging and educational analytics. He is experienced in giving scientific advice to government and actively participates in Educational and Public Engagement activity, including media appearances.
Topics:
Artificial Intelligence