Ireland launched the European Month of AI Innovation with an official summit and a declaration on ‘trustworthy, safe and sovereign’ AI, whilst facing a critical response from protesters.
As part of its Presidency of the Council of the European Union, Ireland hosted an International AI Summit in Dublin on 14 October 2026, which serves as the kick-off of the European AI Innovation Month (until 17 November). Henna Virkkunen, Executive Vice-President of the European Commission, opened the debates, Brad Smith (Microsoft) gave the keynote speech and Mairead McGuinness moderated a panel discussion with Siemens, Zalando and Ericsson, among others.
Three announcements
The Irish government took the opportunity to launch a new start-up incubator, create a ministerial sub-committee dedicated to AI and publish a "Dublin Declaration" in favour of trusted, secure and sovereign AI in Europe. The event cost the presidency's budget €341,000, not including contributions from other agencies whose amount was not made public.
According to Tech Policy Press, the atmosphere was much less consensual outside, with striking public officials and activists denouncing the environmental, social and military impacts of AI. Critics criticize the program for the lack of independent voices; only one union representative was added, after pressure from Parliament.
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