{"id":657146,"date":"2026-08-26T09:04:21","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T09:04:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/657146\/"},"modified":"2026-08-26T09:04:21","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T09:04:21","slug":"ai-is-here-to-stay-but-proceed-with-extreme-caution-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/657146\/","title":{"rendered":"AI is here to stay, but proceed with extreme caution \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Sir, \u2013 I refer to Richard Pine\u2019s  article about AI,  in which he criticises ChatGPT for generating misinformation (\u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/opinion\/2026\/08\/22\/there-are-lies-damned-lies-and-ai-why-i-despise-artificial-intelligence\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/opinion\/2026\/08\/22\/there-are-lies-damned-lies-and-ai-why-i-despise-artificial-intelligence\/\">There are lies, damned lies and AI: why I despise \u2018artificial intelligence\u2019<\/a>,\u201d Opinion, August 22nd).<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">I am certainly no expert in this area, but in my limited experience, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/chatgpt\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/chatgpt\/\">ChatGPT<\/a> can be very accurate and useful when asked carefully constructed and specific questions.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">AI is an extremely powerful new technology, so powerful that there is really no doubt it will be widely applied as we go forward. Some forms of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/artificial-intelligence\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/artificial-intelligence\/\">AI<\/a> have already proved their worth, such as in diagnostic medical radiology. This technology is also comprehensively controlled, ensuring it cannot be used unethically.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">But there are, undoubtedly, grave risks involved in developing and employing \u201cmachines that can think\u201d. Remember the AI computer onboard the spaceship in 2001: A Space Odyssey? The computer tells astronaut Dave Bowman he can\u2019t comply with his request to open the bay doors and allow him re-enter the spaceship.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">In my opinion, Richard Pine is far too negative in his overall assessment of AI. There is no doubt that AI will be widely applied as we go forward. We must therefore focus all our efforts on ensuring this new technology is employed safely and ethically. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">This will inevitably mean we must proceed slower in employing AI than many people would wish. But caution is of the essence here. Mistakes could be disastrous and irreversible. \u2013 Yours, etc,<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">WILLIAM REVILLE,<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Emeritus Professor,<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">UCC,<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Cork.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sir, \u2013 I refer to Richard Pine\u2019s article about AI, in which he criticises ChatGPT for generating misinformation&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":657147,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[261],"tags":[291,289,290,297,18,19,17,82],"class_list":["post-657146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-chatgpt","tag-eire","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-technology"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117161011823297101","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=657146"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657146\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/657147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=657146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=657146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=657146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}