While many fear the rise of AI, Professor Luke O’Neill is convinced it will only help society, when used well. 

“We need to embrace it,” he said on Show Me the Science. 

“When handwriting was invented, Plato said we must not let use students use handwriting because it will stop them thinking. 

“Now look what happened, and I think AI is the same thing. 

“We need to make sure we use it in an effective way to help humanity.” 

Social media

One particular way Prof O’Neill is excited about AI is its capabilities on social media. 

“If you're any way in the public eye you get attacked and it’s awful, but AI may spell the end of that,” he said. 

“X is using AI for fraud detection to remove propaganda and hateful content. 

“We're going to see a system whereby all that trolling and nastiness on social media, AI will be looking out for that. 

“AI will be very effective will in stopping this trolling, especially in misinformation.” 

Prof O’Neill said AI is also used to recommend posts to you from accounts you don’t follow but is based on posts you have liked before. 

“It will make social media the thing we want it to be.” 

Robot typing on a computer keyboard. Image: Mopic / Alamy Stock Photo

As a professor in Trinity College Dublin, many of Prof O’Neill’s colleagues are fearful of what AI means for students – but he embraces it. 

“I have my students write an essay with AI, then get them to critique it,” he said. 

“It's a great way for them to learn.” 

Students can learn the style of AI writing, the information it gets right and the information it gets wrong through using it in an essay. 

“It’s a huge addition to education,” he said. 

Ai-griculture

Prof O’Neill is also excited about the prospect of AI in agriculture. 

“You can use ai to look at dfeect in nurtients deficniey in the soil,” he said. 

“It can analyse and look for weeds to see where they're growing and come up with ways to deal with them. 

“Then there’s AI bots that will harvest crops at a much higher rate and volume than humans.” 

Robot on a dairy farm. Image: Scharfsinn / Alamy Stock Photo

The revenue from AI will reach $126 billion by 2025, according to Prof O’Neill. 

“It's coming at us – it's going to get more and more common,” he said. 

“We’ll need a big of regulation. 

“There is a fear that if it learns and learns, it will become smarter than us, but that’s just science fiction.”