“Research Ireland is funding huge amounts of PhDs to be trained, but they’re leaving afterwards because there isn’t an incentive to stay. “They don’t have the residency and visa to be able to do that, so they move abroad.”For Hines, the bottlenecks are clear: housing and visas, but most of all, AI infrastructure. Ireland’s AI talent retention challenges come just as the European Union’s AI Act – the world’s first comprehensive attempt to regulate artificial intelligence – begins to take effect. The Act is intended not only to set guardrails for companies, but also to signal Europe’s determination to shape the culture of AI research itself. During the event, Canadian computer scientist Richard Sutton urged young researchers to ignore debates about regulation and ethics and just “focus on developing the AI”.

Source: The Irish Times December 11, 2025 10:32 UTC