There was more good news for tech jobs this week, with chipmaker AMD planning almost 300 new jobs at its Irish operations as part of a $135 million investment over the next four years. The jobs are high-tech roles in engineering and research positions, along with a number of support roles.
If you didn’t realise that AMD was even in Ireland, that is because it wasn’t - until it bought Xilinx, which had been in Ireland since 1994. That deal was completed last year, giving AMD a foothold here.
While it doesn’t replace the thousands of jobs that have been lost in the tech sector in the past few months, it is certainly a step in the right direction, and follows the ServiceNow jobs that were announced last week. And airline Ryanair is also still recruiting for tech staff at its Ryanair Labs innovation hub, with 100 roles open. It is part of the 150 jobs it announced last November by the company.
Speaking of chipmakers, Intel has officially signed the deal for its new plant in Germany - with almost €10 billion in state subsidies backing the €30 billion investment. That’s a significantly higher investment than envisaged, with Intel originally costing the plant at €17 billion when the preliminary agreement was signed. But the level of public subsidies has also increased, rising 46 per cent, and will require backing from the European Commission.
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Legislation on artificial intelligence needs to support explainable AI, an Oireachtas Committee has been told. The technology’s decision-making must be explained to those impacted, Professor Greg O’Hare of Trinity College said, with publishing algorithms not enough. The committee was also told this week that a “just transition” approach is required to support people who lose their jobs as a result of the increased use of AI.
But AI is also offering career opportunities, with 97 million jobs involving AI expected to be created worldwide by 2025. Graduates still have lots of opportunities too, despite the layoffs in the tech industry, experts say.
Elsewhere, Irish health tech start-up FoodMarble and design company Dolmen picked up a Red Dot Design Award for the Aire 2 breath-testing device. The ceremony took place earlier this week in Germany and marks a high point for the Irish company.
Microsoft held its first Dream Space showcase too, with students from 13 rural schools and clubs showcasing their skills at the Leopardstown campus.
European digital rights advocacy group NOYB has Meta in its sights again, asking the High Court to direct Ireland’s data-protection watchdog to fully investigate its complaints about social media giant Meta’s handling of users’ data.
And the discussion about facial recognition technology and body-worn cameras for the gardaí continues. New plans are for the cameras to include facial-recognition software, but the use of the controversial technology will not be permitted in real time.
A cyber attack has hairdresser chain Peter Mark, it has emerged. It is early days, with the company currently working with gardaí from the National Cyber Security Centre to assess what information has been affected, but so far the company says it looks like internal staff data has been affected.
Earlier this week, a report from the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) made a number of key recommendations to improve Ireland’s cyber resilience, including establishing a central register of essential and important entities in the State.
Data centres are still in the headlines, this time with Karlin Lillington taking aim at them. We don’t need to be the world leader in these low-employment energy vacuums, she says, noting that the sector uses 18 per cent of Ireland’s electricity annually. That puts it on a par with urban homes; in the US, the figure is only 1.8 per cent. Add into that the fact that we have enormous pressure on the electricity grid, are heavily reliant on unreliable and non-storable wind energy, are well behind on national carbon reduction commitments, and have no near-term way to address the shortfall except by increasing our carbon footprint, and it doesn’t make sense.
Festival season is upon us, and we have a round-up of the best tech to get you through. From finding your tent in a vast campsite to making sure your phone doesn’t meet a muddy end, we have a list of must-have tech.
This week’s business interview is with Amanda Nelson, the new chief executive of Vodafone Ireland. She talks 5G, the future for the mobile network and how she plans on making her mark at the business.
Finally, this week’s tech review is the Kindle Scribe, an e-reader that also has designs on being a digital notebook. Does it work? Most of the time.
