Te Kete o Karaitiana Taiuru (Blog)

Archive


  • AI is changing Māori culture

    AI is changing Māori culture

    It’s a cultural norm for Māori to mihi or greet people with a ‘Kia ora’ or other salutation when in person and written communications, and over the recent years in online video. In the early 2000’s when email was  relatively new, many Māori would include several sentences to a paragraph of mihimihi in each email…

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  • Māori and AI Book Chapter

    Māori and AI Book Chapter

    I had the privilege to contribute a chapter about benefits to Māori in the book ” Ten perspectives on Artificial Intelligence: in a rapidly evolving technology landscape, we need a strategic and ethical approach to AI in Aotearoa. Published April 2025 by the Public Service Association (PSA). I explore how Māori have the unique opportunity to…

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  • Risks of AI Action Figure Trend

    Risks of AI Action Figure Trend

    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…

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  • Intro to Facial Recognition bias

    Intro to Facial Recognition bias

    Now, more than ever, it is important to learn the basics of Facial Recognition Technology (FRT) bias and the impacts on Māori communities. Recent developments include: New Zealand considering Facial Recognition Technology (FRT) for retail stores with an advisory panel of no Māori, AI drones for the military, government agencies and employment recruiters are using…

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  • NZ AI Productivity Report and Māori

    NZ AI Productivity Report and Māori

    The Artificial Intelligence Forum of New Zealand (AI Forum) Te Kāhui Atamai Iahiko o Aotearoa, a purpose-driven, not-for-profit, non-governmental organisation (NGO) funded by members, released their second edition of it’s biannual “AI in Action report Exploring the Impact of Artificial Intelligence on New Zealand’s Productivity ” which also for the first time introduced a Te Ao…

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  • Reo Māori in Russian disinformation network

    Reo Māori in Russian disinformation network

    In 2014, I wrote how Google Translate brought te reo Māori into the new digital world with Spam and Phishing, etc. Now Artificial Intelligence (AI) is using te reo Māori in many new ways, including by the Russian backed Pravda group to provide news/disinformation to New Zealanders. Artificial Intelligence is deploying te reo Māori in…

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  • Monthly Te Ao Māori AI Webinars

    Monthly Te Ao Māori AI Webinars

    I am now offering free webinars from a Te Ao Māori perspective to assist Māori communities and those who interact with Māori communities and AI to better understand the risks and benefits of AI, and to attempt to myth bust some of the many incorrect rumours and fears in the communities, particularly in te ao…

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  • NZ Government Facial Recognition Technology

    NZ Government Facial Recognition Technology

    We use our image of our face as a modern-day password for many things including mobile banking, unlocking our phones, X (formerly Twitter), Firefox Klar and an ever-increasing number of other online services. For law enforcement agencies and retail security, Facial Recognition Technology (FRT) systems are used to decide many factors including who becomes a suspect…

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  • DeepSeek versus ChatGPT for Māori

    DeepSeek versus ChatGPT for Māori

    The introduction of the Chinese AI DeepSeek has been a popular media topic this week. Some of the topics include how much faster it is and how much cheaper it is to run. Concerns about how high-end computer chips were obtained by the Chinese company despite a trade ban on their expert to China from…

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  • AI Plagiarism of Māori Data and Storage

    AI Plagiarism of Māori Data and Storage

    It is a well documented fact in New Zealand and all over the world, that Artificial Intelligence and in particular Large Language Learning Models (LLMs) have been used for student plagiarism in schools, training institutes and universities. Not so well documented are the false notifications that result in innocent students being accused of cheating and…

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  • Inconsistencies with Facial Recognition Trial

    Inconsistencies with Facial Recognition Trial

    Foodstuffs North Island (FSNI) controversially started a Facial Recognition Trial in their stores for what they claimed to provide more protection to their staff. There are mountains of research and cases of innocent people of colour being falsely identified by Facial Recognition Technologies, false arrests, being identified as gorillas etc. In April this year, the…

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  • Treatment of Māori language in language modelling

    Treatment of Māori language in language modelling

    This is my contribution as a critical Indigenous Researcher to the Nature Journal’s article “Increasing the presence of Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) researchers in computational science”  regarding language revitalisation and Artificial Intelligence, along with many other international voices. The Māori language was banned by native schools and other government led assimilation practices in…

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  • X (Formerly Twitter) is allowing 3rd parties to train AI on its data starting Nov 15

    X (Formerly Twitter) is allowing 3rd parties to train AI on its data starting Nov 15

    Earlier this week X (formerly Twitter) updated its Privacy Policy to indicate that it would allow third-party “collaborators” to train their AI models on X data, unless users opt out. Thanks to TechCrunch who first published the details. If you have already locked down your Twitter Privacy, there appears no change. This is a timely reminder that your posts…

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  • Māori and Iwi investments in NZ data centres

    Māori and Iwi investments in NZ data centres

    In the past month, we saw for the first time, a major Iwi, Ngāti Toa announce their investment into one of New Zealand’s many geographically located data centres, while also a Trans-Tasman Indigenous regional edge datacentre provider Gambarra Kaha announced that they have expanded operations to New Zealand with a sole Māori Director. Both announcements…

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  • Cross-agency survey of use cases for Artificial Intelligence

    Cross-agency survey of use cases for Artificial Intelligence

    The Government Chief Digital Officer (GCDO) released results of the 2024 cross-agency survey of use cases for artificial intelligence (AI). The results are not surprising when read and considered in conjunction with Aotearoa New Zealand business surveys and privacy perceptions of AI by the Aotearoa New Zealand public. Of surprise though, is the guidance discriminates…

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  • First New Zealand government agency to trial Generative AI

    First New Zealand government agency to trial Generative AI

    According toRadioNZ article, ACC is the first New Zealand government agency to trial Generative AI over the past year using Microsoft’s Copilot in tests. This article covers the key points and looks at the benefits and risks to Māori. Key points from the article: Most importantly and most reassuring is the government’s chief digital officer…

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  • Māori and First Nations Australia musicians views of Artificial Intelligence (AI)

    Māori and First Nations Australia musicians views of Artificial Intelligence (AI)

    New Zealand and Australian musicians were surveyed about their views of Artificial Intelligence and its impacts on their music, in addition Māori and Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islanders were segmented out creating a unique Indigenous Peoples perspective of AI and their music. The report AI and Music market development of AI in the music sector…

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  • How AI can help Indigenous language revitalisation, and why data sovereignty is important

    How AI can help Indigenous language revitalisation, and why data sovereignty is important

    Using the interview with Michael Running Wolf at https://www-cbc-ca.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.cbc.ca/amp/1.7290740 , I offer some commentary and key warnings for Māori language that I am already seeing occurring here in Aotearoa New Zealand.   “Indigenous language experts working in computer science say Artificial Intelligence is a useful tool in language revitalization but communities must prioritize the ownership…

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