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LEO VARADKAR HAS warned that robots and artificial intelligence (AI) pose a risk to people’s jobs.
When asked about how this could impact workers in Ireland, the Taoiseach said most jobs are “vulnerable to digitalisation or automatisation”, adding: “The important thing now is that we think ahead.
“Almost anyone in employment at all levels could potentially lose their jobs as a result of AI, robotics or automation.
“Even some jobs done by doctors – looking at slides could well be done by machines much more accurately using machine-learning and AI so it’s jobs at absolutely all levels that can be affected by changes in technology.”
Varadkar then joked: “I’m not sure if we’ll have artificial intelligence to replace TDs and Senators or robot ministers, who knows. You get accused of being robotic sometimes.”
Drivers
The Taoiseach noted that about 16% of men in the country drive for a living – including as taxi drivers, bus drivers, train drivers and delivery drivers.
He said if this type of work is automated “that would change that whole world of going to work”.
Varadkar said rather than giving people a grant or financial assistance to go back to college or retrain if their jobs are taken, the government would “try to do something quite different which is in-workforce training, supporting and incentivising employers to make sure their staff are upskilled”.
“During the recession, a huge focus on skills and training was around training unemployed people to get jobs. We’re not going to need to do as much of that anymore and the focus will change to training and upskilling people who are already in jobs to do new things,” he said.
With reporting by Christina Finn
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Dammit Aoife! I had plans today! Now I have the urge to watch the sopranos from the very beginning! I have work in the morning!
Sorry Matt! ;)
Best ending ever! The only other that even came close was Birdy.
Still miss ya Tony.
I know, but there’s no reason to be posting it in public – my girlfriend’s a member of the internets too – she could see this.
RE: the ending of the show – I think it was the viewer that got ‘whacked’.
A few episodes back where Tony was in a boat and there was talk about how a sudden death might occur – all you would see is sudden blackness… That set the scene up for the final one. The viewer never saw it coming and then it was all over! You were watching everything going on in the cafe – then suddenly blackness… You were gone from the show forever more.
I think I agree especially considering the song ,”don’t stop believing ” basically breaks the fourth wall and reminds us of the fictionality of the whole sopranos world but also let’s it exist permanently due to the absence of finality.reminds me of the end of Waugh’s a handful of dust. This guy takes another view however and gives very detailed reasons why : https://masterofsopranos.wordpress.com/the-sopranos-definitive-explanation-of-the-end/
Clearly Tony was killed. Watch the camera shot sequence as each person enters the restaurant. We should see meg from Tony’s POV but instead we get darkness. Death, just as he predicted.
Who’s meg?
Sopranos was absolutely compulsive viewing but I felt the ending was a complete farce. Black screen? Give me a break! It was a complete cop out, the ultimate “we don’t know how to end this but let’s do it so it’s an end or maybe isn’t”. I’ll always be grateful to Chase for giving us the greatest show of its era but will never forgive him for the ending. It was just wrong on every level.
I thought it was a classic ending. Brilliant final episode.
The best interpretation I heard was that basically nothing happens. As in, day to day life continues as normal for Tony.
Just because the cameras aren’t rolling for us viewers, life goes in like it always did for Tony.
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