Dublin City Council (DCC) and the ADAPT Research Ireland Centre, together with Trinity Business School, have announced the launch of Ireland’s first Generative AI Lab dedicated to local government [Thursday 20th February 2025]. The pioneering initiative will explore how Generative AI (Gen-AI) can enhance local government services while ensuring its responsible and ethical deployment, positioning Dublin as a leader in digital governance.
The Gen-AI Lab will act as a hub for cutting-edge research, testing, and the responsible deployment of AI technologies. Generative AI refers to artificial intelligence that can create new content such as text, images, and even solutions to complex problems, by learning from vast amounts of data. This technology is already shaping the way people interact with digital tools, from automated customer service to advanced problem-solving in industry and government.
Drawing on ADAPT’s interdisciplinary expertise, the collaboration will address pressing issues such as AI governance, ethics, and transparency, while exploring opportunities for innovation in areas such as Large Language Models (LLMs), human-computer collaboration, and digital transformation, positioning Dublin as a global leader in the responsible adoption of AI. The work of the lab will also identify opportunities to attract new industry collaborations, applying cutting-edge new Gen-AI applications and language models that address the needs of the City Council.
Jamie Cudden, Smart City Program Manager at Dublin City Council, highlighted the potential for the initiative, saying: “Generative AI represents a huge opportunity for the City Council in how we deliver services, interact with the public, and future-proof our operations. By collaborating with Trinity College Dublin and leveraging ADAPT’s world-class expertise, this initiative will help us evaluate and implement cutting-edge Gen-AI solutions that are both impactful and ethical, ensuring Dublin remains a leader in digital innovation.”
Professor John D Kelleher, Director of ADAPT, said: “The Gen-AI Lab provides a unique platform to explore how Generative AI can be responsibly applied in the public sector. At ADAPT, we are committed to pushing the boundaries of AI research while ensuring its societal impact is positive, transparent, and human-centric. This partnership with Dublin City Council allows us to connect academic innovation with real-world challenges, co-creating AI systems that deliver meaningful value and truly serve the public interest.”
Dr Ashish Jha of Trinity Business School said: “No technological innovation can have maximum impact on society without targeting the wider societal stakeholders. Through this partnership with Dublin City Council, we aim to bring innovation in the field of generative AI to broader societal stakeholders. It aligns with our school’s mission of ‘Transforming Business for Good’ and enables us to work with innovative organisations like Dublin City Council to bring wider impact.”
Over the next 12 months, the Gen-AI Lab will engage in a diverse range of activities including workshops, prototype development, knowledge-sharing sessions, and public engagement initiatives. The Lab will work closely with Dublin City Council service owners to identify challenge areas that can benefit the most from AI-powered solutions. These include ideas to streamline administrative tasks to improve efficiency, to respond more effectively to customer service requests and provide enhanced support to councillors, as well as enabling more efficient processing and analysis of data across the organisation. These activities will help integrate AI into Dublin City Council’s long-term digital strategy while ensuring staff have the necessary training and upskilling to embrace and leverage AI technologies effectively.
The initiative, supported by Research Ireland through ADAPT, also aims to set national and international best practice for the governance and ethical adoption of AI technologies, paving the way for policy and governance frameworks in Dublin and beyond.
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