Liz Carolan

The “scan and pulp” story hit a nerve this week, but it’s only scratching the surface of what the AI industry is doing; which is fundamentally transforming the economics of human creativity and destroying the legal infrastructure - in place since the 1700s - that makes it a viable profession

I’d forgotten what it felt like to wake up to non catastrophic election news

This year’s Irish Hallowe’en turnip, and a handful of those of from years past (they don’t always make it, if they rot before dessicating) #Hallowe’en #Samhain

I’ve a piece in the paper exploring why so many of us can’t get enough of Elizabeth Holmes - “the bossiest girlboss of the girlboss era, which was, in retrospect, higher in expectations for women than it was in actual opportunities”

Same www.contactyourtd.ie

I promise you this. If 1,000 of you did the same before 5pm today they would all be issuing clarifications by end of day. (well, probably not Jim O’Callaghan, who doesn’t know why cars come with a reverse gear)

I’ve slept on it now and when I woke up, I was still still mad about it. This morning, I’m going to ring the constituent office of my local FF TD and tell him just how mad it made me. Then I’m going to call the constituency office of my local SF TD, and ask if Matt Carthy’s support is their view.

Had a really bad dream where the Minister for Justice, in the name of the government, enabled a pile-on of a rape crisis centre because of a campaign to raise awareness of consent for children.

The distinction being drawn by the Government members is that a hug is non-sexual and so you don't need consent. I simply don't agree and this is a very bad assertion of government policy over children. We had a whole referendum where the rights of children were affirmed www.rte.ie/news/2026/10...

The International Criminal Court and its officials have been awarded the European Parliament's 2026 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought. Learn more about the laureate here: link.europa.eu/rVBvTR

EU Member States agree on "simplifying" GDPR and other EU data laws - must still be negotiated with the European Parliament www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/pre...

Great piece here about the Irish government's AI summit and Ireland's economic "model" and identity.

Excellent, thoughful article in an age of diatribes.

‘Are we sleepwalking into World War III?’ asks the FT

My dispatch from yesterday's AI Summit for @techpolicypress.bsky.social www.techpolicy.press/riverdance-i...

Ireland remains Tier 2 on human trafficking as IHREC warns progress has stalled. www.irishlegal.com/articles/no-...

FYI I’m much saltier and pettier about this in a newsletter I just sent - did I create a spreadsheet of speaking time? Yes I did. It’s gone out but I’ll work out how to manually send it to anyone who signs up (it’s free) at thebriefing.ie

The invitation-only gathering comes as Ireland leads negotiations over the Digital Omnibus, raising questions about whose interests are represented as the EU rewrites its digital rulebook, writes Tech Policy Press fellow Liz Carolan.

Ah yes, the classic lead indicator of so many bad things: The Flydubai co-pilot historically posted misogynistic content including calling women “rotten meat” www.ft.com/content/a92b...

Weird that 3 US companies -- Apple (€4.1bn), Microsoft (€5.6bn) and Eli Lilly (€5.7bn) -- now pay for people's heating oil, pension increases and tax cuts in this Budget. Near directly. They file windfall taxes = we hike social spending and cut our income tax. Utter, depressing dependence.

Latest TheBriefing newsletter just landed in inboxes; Is clog the new slop? And AI insurance woes www.thebriefing.ie/is-clog-the-...

Looking forward to this event at The MAC on Thursday evening, depending on how the place looks at that juncture given how the week is shaping up...

I am amazed that for a few years we had the ability to instantly access information through an almost perfect search engine and the makers of that search engine decided hundreds of billions wasn’t enough profit so they destroyed it

Attacks on elected representatives have no place in our democracy. We wish Michael Healy-Rae well and a swift recovery. www.rte.ie/news/ireland...

Online people talk about the imminenent threat of mankind’s extinction by the most powerful technology ever conceived. In Dublin four men operate traffic lights at every second crossing

When petulance met dignity

Did @rteradio1.bsky.social just go off the air for anyone else? #speirgorm

Here is our draft definition of 'artificial intelligence' from 1981. It was written by a lovely human.

The urge became too strong.

Polls have closed in Saxony-Anhalt and exit polls put result on a knife edge (AfD 41 seats, others 42). First projections based on actual results due out soon. But if exit polls are right this is a rupture in the history of the federal republic.

The moment anyone tells you you shouldn’t join a union, urgently look around for a union to join.