“With great power, comes great responsibility”. A phrase in which many of us are familiar with, it is a quote whom’s relevance increases as we incorporate powerful technology into the day to day running of our lives. As we enter this new period of our history, the ethics and morals that have guided us to this point may not always apply, or in some cases need revising. In other instances, entirely new concepts of what is right and wrong will have to be drawn up. We have been increasing giving more information and access to our daily routines to companies, baring our souls to different social media platforms which has allowed these companies to build online profiles of us. While this does allow them to tailor their products or services to best suit our needs, at what stage do we question how much of our lives we are willing to share in this information-driven age of technology? Or is this simply the reality we face as the human species continues to evolve, as technology continually plays a more significant part of our lives.

Ethics is defined as the moral principles that govern a person’s behavior or the conducting of an activity. We develop our moral sense of what is right or wrong from many figures in our lives; our parents, teachers, religious figures or texts and peers. We have all been shaped by the actions of those before and around us, though we all are not subjected to the same scenarios, or choices that carry the same weight. In previous generations, the LGBT community and some minorities were viewed in a lesser light by the vast majority of the Irish populace. This was due to a combination of Ireland’s strong relationship with the Catholic church, and its relative international isolation it experienced at the time. In recent years, Ireland has made giant steps in changing its perception of social norms, and it will have to do the same to adapt to the ever-changing technology landscape.

With services such as Siri and Alexa offering us more and more functionalities and accessibility, we would do well to embrace it while ensuring that the collected data is not misused and corrected stored. A bill, which will have great significance on the future use of our data, was introduced by the European parliament last year. The General Data Protection Regulation was drafted in 2016, and consists of 11 chapters curtailing the use of data and the responsibilities of data controllers. While only in affect in the E.U, it effects all traffic coming in and out of the EU zone and could set the standard on the international scene as Tech Companies continue to rise in size and power. It returns power to the user, giving them the ability to alter or delete online profiles of themselves. It could also pave the way to further discussions in the field, and shows that the our governing body is aware of the challenges that face us.

Artificial intelligence, this is a word that has varying definitions depending on what era and whom you ask. A simple concept for hard coded programs back in the 70’s, with a today’s technological advancements its concept is a lot more complex and its applications endless. While we face moral issues with further pursuit to improve/evolve it and our implementations of it, it’s journey from its humble beginnings to the technical behemoth it is today has proven to be an exciting one, one which I am eager awaiting what exciting development is next.

The idea of artificial intelligence has existed for many generations, dating back even to ancient Chinese legends in 3rd century B.C. Receiving notable contributions from famous computer scientists such as Alan Turing, creator of the Turing test, Walter Pitts and Warren McCulloch, who were the first to theorize the idea of neural networks, this field of study was not officially labelled until 1956. John McCarthy, held as the father of a.i, and Marvin Minsky, who built the first neural net machine the “SNARC”, organised the Dartmouth Conference. This was a pivotal moment in a.i history as a lot of key figures in a.i research in the proceeding decades were in attendance. Allen Newell and Herbert A. Simon debuted the “Logic theorist” , a computer program that mirrored human problem-solving methodologies and is described as the first artificial intelligence program. The following years up to 1974 were labelled “The Golden Years” due to the rapid advances made in the field. This led to a wave of funding by the newly created Advanced Research Projects Agency (later known as DARPA), hoping to aid in the race to create the first true a.i. But the researchers failed to realize the true scope of the problem, that the computers available to them did not have the necessary computational power to process all decisions outside of simple games, nor did they have the tools to create large databases to feed these programs the necessary data to learn. This led to the first of two AI winters, in which investment dries up and A.I loses its trendiness only for it to bounce back a number of years later as the technology available increases in power. While these bounces did tarnish the reputation of A.I, it restored some of its pristine by completing some milestones such as Deep Blue defeating the worlds reigning chess champion in 1997 and the Stanford robot being the first to drive autonomously for 131 miles fin 2005. These successes were just the public projects, with AI programs or implementations of them were used by businesses and slowly being adopted more.

With a population of just 4.8 million people, our modest Country holds the position of the second largest provider of computer and I.T services in the world. This amounts to 70 billion euro of exports, covering software, hardware and services, and makes up 40% of all Irish exports. Embracing and adapting to new emerging technology has been a crucial aspect of this, along with political and geographical factors that played a role in our rise to power. While technology is infamous for automating and replacing jobs in various sectors, Ireland is a prime example of how you can evolve and refine yourself in the face of these modern challenges.

Ireland currently hosts the top 5 global software companies, nine of the top ten US Technology companies and four of the top five IT services companies world wide. Though Ireland has historically hosted reputable names such as Dell and apple, in recent years the IT industry has accelerated in its growth, mirroring its greater impact on our day to day lives. The European Union is the worlds largest economy, with its open market approach enticing to many international companies. A key element in American companies choosing to base their operations on our emerald isle, is our relatively short distance to the East coast in comparison to other EU nations. With a 5 hour time difference between Dublin and New York, this gives many companies a lot of over-lapping time to coordinate and query between two offices or multiple teams. Another tantalizing bonus of choosing Ireland as a European headquarters is our historically low tax rate. During the years 1956- 1980, Ireland offered a 0% rate of tax on international businesses, creating an influx of companies seeking to base there. When Ireland joined the EU, it was forced to revise this to 10% upon entering, while we now offer a 12.5% corporation tax.

Ireland boosts one of the youngest workforce’s in Europe, with 33% of its population under the age of 25, and just over 50% under 35. With experts forecasting our population to swell to close to 6 million by 2040, the need for more jobs will only increase. Ireland has worked hard to make its populace attractive acquisitions, earning the rank of number 1 in Europe for third level completion. This is reflected in our global standings, where we are in the top ten best educated countries in the world. 50% of people between the ages of 30-35 in Ireland have completed third level education. Currently there is a quarter of a million students in third level education, with 30% of these studying STEM courses. Its figures like these which showcase why Ireland is a hotbed for emerging Technology companies looking to capitalize on our skill labor force.

With the Irish Government implementing its Future Job program, continuing to progress our nation into the 21st century and beyond, it certainly is an exciting time to be studying and entering the computing world. As the industry constantly adapts to changes to new technologies and trends, the onus is on us to change with the times, or risk being left in its wake.