Name: SFI's Prof Mark Ferguson on Ireland's position in the sciences by Tech Radio Ireland in TechRadio Best of 2019
Duration: 23 min 25 s
Description: This week Niall meets Science Foundation Ireland director general and scientific advisor to the government of Ireland, Prof Mark Ferguson to talk research with impact and talent acquisition.

TechRadio Best of 2019

This week we have the really mundane reason for Monday’s massive AWS outage. Closer to home, an AI-generated deepfake video showed an Irish election candidate withdrawing from the race, complete with a convincing fake Sharon Ní Bheoláin presenting it on RTÉ News. The question everyone’s asking: who made it, and how do we stop this becoming the new normal? Plus, we’ll look at why your driving licence is going digital by 2030.

Grace Dinan from JunieXR on live extended reality

When your AI agent books a rental car, it needs your driver's license, credit card, calendar access and permission to message your contacts—creating what Meredith Whittaker calls "fundamental backdoor" threatening apps like Signal. 

At ADAPT ADVANCE 2025, Signal Foundation President and AI Now Institute co-founder Meredith Whittaker joined Dr Abeba Birhane for a fireside chat dissecting why "bigger is better" serves hyperscaler monopolies not evidence. 

How AI companions weaponise 1970s Eliza manipulation psychology on minors, why "open source AI" became marketing arbitrage exploiting software community goodwill, and what sovereign AI actually requires beyond anxiety signifiers—including democratic governance, trusted local data, and answers to "who owns deployment infrastructure?"
 
THINGS WE SPOKE ABOUT

* “Bigger is better" AI myth protects hyperscaler monopolies, not users
* Agentic AI demands sweeping permissions creating existential privacy backdoor threats
* AI companions weaponize known psychological manipulation tactics against vulnerable minors
* "Open source AI" exploits software community goodwill without delivering benefits
* Sovereign AI requires democratic governance beyond geopolitical anxiety signaling today

GUEST DETAILS

Meredith Whittaker is President of the Signal Foundation and co-founder of the AI Now Institute—one of the most trusted voices in AI ethics, transparency and accountability. Her decade of work has profoundly shaped ethical AI frameworks, bringing impact from academia to industry.

At Google, Meredith was core organizer for the 2018 Google Walkouts where over 20,000 employees protested military AI use (Project Maven), surveillance, and sexual misconduct—forcing Google to discontinue their military contract and oust implicated VPs.

As AI Now Institute co-founder, her research cuts through AI hype, grounding discussions on what truly matters: power concentration, labour exploitation in AI pipelines, and protecting fundamental rights including privacy and rule of law. 

Her work exposes corporate capture, debunks "bigger is better" myths, reveals sustainability costs, and provides foundational open source research.

Meredith has provided congressional testimony to US Congress and leads Signal—one of the most trusted privacy-friendly messaging apps. Her background building large-scale network measurement systems at Google gives her unique expertise in data quality, evaluation criteria manipulation, and how benchmark gaming serves hyperscaler interests over real-world effectiveness.

Dr Abeba Birhane is founder and director of the AI Accountability Lab at Trinity College Dublin. Her groundbreaking research examines AI datasets, uncovering how larger datasets contain higher hateful content and pornography—debunking "bigger dissipates problems" assumptions. 

Her work on benchmarks and measurement demonstrates that purpose-built smaller models often outperform larger models in real-world contexts with appropriate contextual data.

Connect with the guests:

* Signal Foundation: signal.org
* AI Now Institute: ainowinstitute.org
* AI Accountability Lab: Contact through ADAPT Centre
* Follow their research and writing on AI accountability

MORE INFORMATION

You can learn more about the Sea-Scan project and other cutting-edge research at Trinity College Dublin's ADAPT Centre here: www.adaptcentre.ie/
Adapt Radio is produced by DustPod.io for the ADAPT Centre
For more information about ADAPT's groundbreaking AI and data analytics research visit www.adaptcentre.ie/

KEYWORDS

#TrustedAI #AIaccountability #AIprivacy #AIgovernance #MeredithWhittaker

Who owns AI with Meredith Whittaker from Signal

On this week's show we have good news for Microsoft and Nvidia, a new day for OpenAI as a for-profit entity, the Irish Council for Civil Liberties takes it's concern over the latest DPC appointment to Europe, and SpaceX's gift to star gazers. Later, Beta Festival co-founder Aisling Murray talks about what to expect from this year's series of events.

Beta Festival's Aisling Murray on the intersection of art and technology

This week, Collins dictionary reveals its words of the year. We also examine the latest OpenAI-Amazon deal and speculate about what a low-cost Macbook might look like. Plus we find out more about Science Week with Ruth Freeman, director of research for society at Research Ireland.

Research Ireland's Ruth Freeman on Science Week 2025

This week Apple pulls the plug on the iPhone Air, how Cloudflare brought down a fifth of the Internet, crypto has a bad week and trouble at the EU as Ursula von der Leyn falls victim to AI hype.
Plus, Dr Hazel Farrell from SETU talks about how artificial intelligence can be used as a tool rather than a threat to learning.

Air today, gone tomorrow

Teachers face overwhelming preparation burden as global education shifts toward personalised learning and outcomes based curricula without adequate infrastructure support creating fragmented system between teachers, students, school leaders and departments.

Dr Chris Byrne, founder and CEO of MESO offering intelligent planning software for teachers supported by Enterprise Ireland and ADAPT Centre Trinity College Dublin with PhD focused on curriculum change, explains why leaked UK government report showed 25% teachers considering quitting due planning burden requiring reducing class contact hours costing physical resources, how personalised education demands knowing 30 to 40 students' individual learning needs without providing additional time or infrastructure, why outcomes based education replaced topic textbook model with broad learning statements containing active verbs like discuss and investigate developing 21st century skills, and how AI enables creating unit plans, lesson plans, rubrics and success criteria whilst human teachers excel at predicting task duration where LLMs prove terrible.

THINGS WE SPOKE ABOUT

Teachers face overwhelming preparation burden personalised outcomes based education without adequate infrastructure fragmented system 
Leaked UK government report twenty five percent teachers considering quitting planning burden physical resource constraints 
Outcomes based education replaced topics with learning statements active verbs discuss investigate twenty first century skills 

GUEST DETAILS
Dr Chris Byrne is Founder and CEO of MESO creating education planning software empowering teachers, students and school leaders through adaptive tools enhancing teaching and learning fostering environment where every learner can thrive. Supported by Enterprise Ireland commercialisation funding and partnering with Trinity College ADAPT Centre, world leading SFI Research Centre for AI-Driven Digital Content Technology, ensuring MESO at forefront of education innovation. 

Holding Postgraduate Diploma in Education Management from National University Ireland Maynooth and PhD from Trinity College Dublin where research focused on curriculum change, he brings perspective as former teacher with extensive classroom experience understanding planning burden firsthand. Active contributor to global conversation on education reform regularly speaking at national and international conferences sharing insights on curriculum innovation, adaptive learning technologies and educational transformation with research published in leading academic journals shaping contemporary discussions on effective education strategies influencing policy and practice in educational institutions worldwide.


Connect with Dr Chris Byrne:
Website: mesolab.ai
ADAPT Centre: www.adaptcentre.ie
Enterprise Ireland Commercialisation Funding
Trinity College Dublin

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This week Niall meets Science Foundation Ireland director general and scientific advisor to the government of Ireland, Prof Mark Ferguson to talk research with impact and talent acquisition.

SFI's Prof Mark Ferguson on Ireland's position in the sciences

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This week we This week Niall talks with Ampersand CEO and founder Holly O'Driscoll about the value - commercial and organisational - of design thinking.
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Technology news from Ireland to the world

SFI's Prof Mark Ferguson on Ireland's position in the sciences

Tech Radio Ireland

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