In February 2022, ADAPT hosted an online Idea Generation workshop for the Think-Ins series 2022. 31 people attended the event including members of the public and representatives from the following organisations: 

• ADAPT Centre
• Centre for Engaged Research, Dublin City University
• Department of Law, Maynooth University
• Dublin City University
• Enable Ireland
• Freedom Tech / Enable Ireland
• Trigger Graphic Design
• Institute for Media, Democracy and Society, Dublin City University
• Kildare Libraries
• Local Government Management Agency (LGMA)
• Louth Libraries
• Meath Library
• National Collective of Community Based Women’s Networks (NCCWN)
• School of Engineering, Trinity College Dublin
• Smart Docklands / Smart Dublin
• Southern Regional Assembly
• Sticky Dot
• The Irish Platform for Patient Organisations, Science and Industry (IPPOSI)
• The Wheel
• Trinity Centre for Digital Humanities
• Trinity College Dublin
• TU Dublin

In the workshop, we used the Mural collaboration tool in break out sessions to explore key themes that emerged from discussions around the impact of AI. (The full mural of suggestions from the workshop can be found here.)

The first activity centred around one key question: What impact can AI have on the following sectors? (Community/Society; Academia; Government/Policy and Business/Industry). Participants indicated what areas they think AI will have the most impact on in their own sector and considered the impact it may then have in other areas. Participants then voted on the ideas they felt are the most important.

Next, the project evaluators, Brussels-based Sticky Dot, explored with participants what the expected outcomes of the project should be. This enabled the workshop participants to co-develop the evaluation criteria for the project.

The next activity centred around clarifying the importance from the earlier discussions we have now identified a number of the most important areas which you foresee AI having an impact upon, across a range of sectors. We have placed the idea that participants valued most important in the centre of a bullseye diagram, and discussed 3-6 core areas participants felt it was most important to focus on.

Finally, we summarised the themes and mapped connections ADAPT’s research themes and the ideas people have identified with most important.

The core themes that emerged from the workshop are:

• Regulation
• Ethics
• Keeping the human central

With three overarching concerns across all topics being:

• Education
• Reaching / Including communities that are often under-represented in the development of AI technology
• Transparency

What happens next?

These themes are a starting point for us to think about possible directions for the Think-In discussions this year and we will use the ideas and themes as a basis for co-creation with communities. We will work together to co-create AI discussion events that are relevant to them and address questions raised under these themes.