Where appropriate, my Department plans to assess the opportunities presented by all digital tools, including AI, to improve the delivery of services to our customers. This will be done in compliance with National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) advice and in line with the Government National Artificial Intelligence Strategy for Ireland, AI – Here for good.
As with all new technologies, its adoption will be subject to data privacy and other appropriate legislation, and approval by the Department’s internal governance processes. As the Deputy will be aware, the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) issued useful guidance to all Government Departments in June of this year in relation to the use of Generative AI. My Department has not contracted any consultancy firms for additional advice in respect to the use of AI to date.
My Department does not use language model based chatbots. However, a pilot rules based chatbot which provides FAQ type responses is in operation on the Immigration Services website.