Community groups should prepare for coming opportunities…and also hope that AI doesn’t wipe out humanity

Will AI be a help in community development? “Definitely,” says Pat Kennedy, CEO of eTownz. Does AI have the potential to destroy humanity? “Absolutely”, he replies, quoting warnings from its inventors.

To many in rural Ireland, the acronym remains associated first and foremost with impregnating cows, and Kennedy agrees that AI is coming at society at a “headspinning” speed.

Nonetheless, his community-focused company is currently putting it to good use and he was able to easily, over the phone, list a half-dozen ways that AI can be of benefit to community-based organisations and not-for-profits.

6 WAYS TO USE AI

“The community development sector in general should take advantage and use AI tools designed for business in a community development setting,” he said, listing for example:

1. It could help you write your social media content.

2. It’s going to be a help writing legal documents.

3. It can help with storytelling – you might have a report on Tidy Towns, or a match, and you might not be good at writing stories, but if you provide a summary of what’s happened at a match, or a Tidy Towns update, it’ll write a proper version for you.

4. It can also help with reports, for example your annual report. It will be helpful with structured documents such as tenders, grant and planning applications. It won’t do them for you, but it will take some of the hard work out of it.

5. It could help with administration, setting up emails and setting reminders and so on.

6. Creating images. People can use it to come up with posters, with cover pages for your plans – you might want an AI-generated image of what a playground in your area might look like in the future.

SAFE FROM MASS LAYOFFS

AI in forms such as ChatGPT and ChatPDF is already free online, for anyone to use – including community development workers.

“This has been going on for years. There are thousands of AI tools out there now, but ChatGPT made AI famous because it is user-friendly,” explained Kennedy.

He, like many, believes it will truly change society.

“People in law firms and in marketing are doomed, but if you’re a chef, a plumber, or a youth or community worker – AI isn’t a threat to your job.

“Looking at the bigger picture, the world is in drastic need of huge change and this tool may be what was needed,” he said.

Kennedy added that AI will present challenges and opportunities within communities – such as what to do when people have more time in the community as industries experience mass layoffs and high-tech societies move to shorter working weeks.

“We’re going to have to rethink the five-day working week,” he noted.

Meanwhile, community development workers will be freed from “a lot of the paperwork” and they will have more time to do their actual work.

“It’s a gamechanger. In eTownz, we’re helping towns come up with plans. There is nothing more complex than the community and AI has ways of analysing huge amounts of information quickly.

“On the downside there’s likely to be a bigger digital divide,” he warned.

“AI will take over many roles done by humans. Human-like AI machines will work in old folks homes and some people will love them, some
won’t.”

The stuff of science fiction is becoming reality.