AI risk governance tips, resources and media commentary about all matters that relate to AI governance topics for all New Zealand organisations.
There is an urgent need for marae to implement new kawa and tikanga to protect the people form anonymously being AI’s training data. Camera glasses (pervert glasses) now sold at Kmart for ninety-nine dollars, and other more expensive glasses with facial recognition updates, recording video and stills, wired to an AI assistant are about to … Read more
A social media wildlife expert called a First Nations version of Steve Irwin drew a large following that The Guardian exposed the account as an AI-generated character. A South African content creator reportedly ran the operation from New Zealand. Indigenous experts have described the account as AI and digital blackface: modern racial impersonation that simulates … Read more
AI Agents are to Māori what Captain Cook and his Endeavour Ship and crew were. If Māori understood the challenges and intergenerational colonisation they were capable of, the historical outcomes would be very different. Artificial Intelligence (AI) agents are rapidly becoming autonomous actors within social, economic, and governmental systems. For Māori, these agents introduce new … Read more
Data Sovereignty is not just a Māori issue, but a global issue that New Zealand must address now. Another follow up report from my Māori Data Governance Report 2025, this article analyses corporate requirements for Data Sovereignty and the need to classify on-shore and off-shore data hosting and sovereign AI and Data centres. Corporate needs … Read more
The AI action figure trend, where users generate personalised or stylised figures using AI tools (like custom avatars, toy-like images, or even physical 3D printed models based on AI renderings) carries several risks, particularly around privacy, ethics, cultural appropriation, and deepfake potential. From a Māori perspective, the AI action figure trend presents serious risks associated … Read more
WARNING: This article should be read by adults and in conjunction to having knowledge of the over representation of Māori victims of online sexual abuse/harassment. Pornhub, New Zealand’s most viewed pornographic web site released its New Zealand 2022 statistics in November (Stats link page with terms that some may find offensive and likely not … Read more
The Classifications Office released a report called “What we’re watching New Zealanders’ views about what we see on screen and online”. This is an analysis of the Māori findings with a conclusion identifying some possible solutions.
The latest research report Global Kids Online: Digital Parenting Strategies and Behaviours of New Zealand Parents, published by NetSafe interviewed parents of children aged 9-17 about the prevalence of different practices to influence or mediate children’s internet use. Yey! Māori and Pacifika were under represented in the research, Further contributing to the increasing discrimination and … Read more
In New Zealand European men aged between 20 and 39 years old are most likely to commit harmful digital acts and be charged, according to the annual statistics from the Ministry of Justice. The most likely victims of harmful digital communications are young Māori females, then Pacific and Asian females (NetSafe). Yet, Māori are more … Read more
NetSafe released their second Ngā taiohi matihiko o Aotearoa – New Zealand Kids Online. The research analyses New Zealand children’s experiences of online risks and their perceptions of harm. Two milestones for Māori. One ‘Kia ora’ is spelled orthographically correct this time (also AirNZ has rectified this too) removing a distraction. I believe this is … Read more
A summary of Māori Internet safety statistics taken from three NetSafe reports from 2019. Image based sexual abuse report (2019) Threatening someone with image-based sexual abuse was more common among Asian (8%) and Māori (6%) compared with other ethnic groups. Parents of NZ European/Pākehā, Māori, and Pacific children were significantly more worried about their children … Read more
A Law Foundation-funded report Digital Threats to Democracy, one of the most in-depth reports published locally to date on the negative side effects accompanying the rise of digital media. The report also considers Māori and Indigenous democratic issues. Again, the first time this has occurred. I have extracted key Māori views from the report which … Read more
Be aware of Spam being circulated using Te Reo Māori and another language. Below is a screen shot of the latest te reo Māori spam I received. While this is not very sophisticated, it very quickly and easily could be made to look legit and from someone you know. Unfortunately there are no services to … Read more
This is an analysis of the hacker who calls them-self “Māori” who inserted a disk wiping code into the alleged Christchurch mosques alleged shooter’s manifesto. It is not the first time we have seen a vigilante Māori hacker(s) appear from the dark and then dissapear again. The first time a Māori hacker gained international attention … Read more
Māori are still prominent victims of online bullying according to the latest research by Action Station discussing impacts and usefulness of the Harmful Digital Communications Act (HDCA) a powerful piece of legislation that was enacted to address the issue of online abuse. However it is not sufficient to address every issue of online hate, harassment … Read more
Online Māori are increasingly becoming targets of direct ethnic online scams that utilise our culture to try to take advantage of Māori. The latest scam involves someone on Facebook, Instagram, Phone message and other social media claiming to he one of the whanau, a cuzzie. The scams are sophisticated and take a bit of effort. … Read more
An analysis of Māori data from the Office of Film and Literature Classification (OFLC) report titled “Research findings of a survey on how and why Young New Zealanders view online pornography” published in December 2018. The complete report is available from https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/5425697/NZYouthandPorn.pdf A young person is a person aged between 14 and 17. The report … Read more
This article extracts Māori specific information from the NetSafe report titled “Personal Experiences of Online Hate Speech and offers personal analysis of their results and my personal experience with online hate. I have critiqued the definitions used int he survey. That critique is at the end of the article. Māori appear to be statistically better off … Read more