Reconciliation is Needed More than Ever in Northern Ireland. Can New Technology Bring People Together?

The Northern Ireland Executive is currently consulting on its first Artificial Intelligence (AI) Strategy, and I would encourage anyone interested in our economic and social future to respond before the consultation closes on 7 October. [Northern Ireland’s Draft Artificial Intelligence Strategy | The Executive Office ]

This consultation might appear to be an unlikely subject to connect with the events at Drumcree and the Garvaghy Road over the weekend, but I believe it raises an important question: how do we create new positive opportunities for people from different traditions to work together on common or shared goals?

The events in Portadown are a reminder that we can’t take reconciliation for granted. The Parades Commission had permitted a limited Orange Order parade along the Garvaghy Road, prompting a legal challenge, an appeal and a major protest by local residents and their supporters. The parade did not proceed along the road and a major stand-off followed.

Whilst this draft AI strategy considers how government could use this new technology to improve our public services it could be expanded to include important steps towards reconciliation. AI could become a major economic driver for Northern Ireland, particularly in the private sector, and bring people together, with shared goals, to develop new businesses, boost economic growth and create new job opportunities.

Making the Civil Service more efficient is very important, but so is the opportunity to bring us all together around a shared economic goal that could improve everyone’s lives and give everyone something to aim for.

Perhaps this economic ambition could also be an important driver of reconciliation in Northern Ireland or, as some would prefer, the north of Ireland.

Reconciliation could be an important additional social benefit, and this is needed more than ever after the recent events at Drumcree and the Garvaghy Road.

There has been significant progress in reconciling our society over the last twenty-five years, so I can understand how so many people are distraught about the events over the weekend in Portadown and the political tensions they have created at Stormont.

Now, more than ever, we need to reboot efforts on reconciliation and create joint causes that people can get behind. Sadly, many people here still grow up in largely separate communities and attend separate schools.

I believe that reconciliation is about creating opportunities and spaces in which we can participate together. It doesn’t require us to become any less nationalist, unionist or anything else. Instead, it is about offering people from different traditions the chance to work together on something they both value. There would also need to be a strong financial incentive to encourage our younger people to get involved.

I have a personal interest in this too, as my wider family had links to the Corrymeela Community and its centre in Ballycastle. For decades Corrymeela has been bringing together people who may have been separated through location, politics or education.

We need positive initiatives to balance the current divisions and it would be encouraging if Corrymeela, or other similar organisations, could bring a group of young people together to explore these powerful new technologies. Using AI models, they could work on exercises to build solutions to challenges in healthcare, business, education or agriculture — or even start a new business here in Northern Ireland.

Over the last two decades, we have seen that when people work closely together as colleagues, business associates or educational partners, they can begin to view each other differently because they have shared aims and objectives. At this time it is important to be working together towards a common goal to improve our society, services and businesses.

The number of views and comments on the Slugger O’Toole platform over recent days shows that it provides an opportunity to debate and express views even on very difficult and divisive subjects. I believe that, for all the bad press around AI just now, maybe it could also be a force for good and help in the reconciliation process, which has unfortunately stalled or lost momentum.

This proposal using the latest technology would be more likely to succeed if it were built upon the eight guiding principles of the NI Executive’s new Artificial Intelligence Strategy. These are: Human Oversight; Accountability and Redress; Data Governance; Technical Safety and Security; Fairness and Transparency; Sustainability; Societal Benefit; and Training and Literacy.

It is true that the current consultation is primarily aimed at improving the public sector and public service delivery, but there is no reason why this couldn’t be extended to wider society.

The objective of reconciliation certainly fits well with the draft strategy’s key principles of ‘Societal Benefit’ and ‘Fairness and Transparency’. Realising that potential would require the NI Executive to recognise its merits and value.

AI could also become something of a great leveller in Northern Ireland — provided we deliberately make it one. Access to AI skills and tools could create new opportunities regardless of anyone’s social background, community or geography.

In conclusion, I would encourage you all to respond to the NI Executive’s AI consultation. The link is included at the start of this brief article.

We would be naive to believe that AI alone can reconcile Northern Ireland, but responding to this consultation could send a strong message that we want to bring people from all walks of life together to use these powerful technologies to create new businesses and opportunities for a positive future.