This category has unique insights, articles and analysis into Māori Issues relating to cyber safety.
Net Safe reports are also analysed for Māori views and risks so that trends that impact on Māori on the Internet are easily accessed.
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
Too often in New Zealand, AI safety folk (who usually have a high level of privilege or are detached from vulnerable communities), will reference international AI stories highlighting harms while being oblivious to local harm stories. This is important from the perspective that New Zealand is not immune from AI harms and it helps politicians … Read more
The 2026 Online Exposure: Experiences of Extreme or Illegal Content in Aotearoa report from the Classification Office provides a comprehensive look at the prevalence and impact of extreme or illegal online content within New Zealand. This report examines the experiences of extreme or illegal content among various age groups and how it affects the population. … 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
The digital future is being written right now. AI is already here. Māori are at a crossroads. Māori Data Sovereignty is now a must. In an increasingly digitised world, Artificial Intelligence systems and algorithms shape key aspects of daily life, from healthcare to law enforcement. However, these technologies are often developed without sufficient regard for … Read more
Toitū te Tiriti Lawyer, Tania Waikato who has become prominent online with sharing legal advise. She posts tutorials about how to write submissions against the racist Regulatory Standards Bill here in New Zealand and has been banned from Facebook. Her content was civil, polite and factual. It only served to enlighten people of the impacts … Read more
Earlier this week the Honourable Winston Peters, in an open parliament debate about the punishment of three politicians of the Māori Party, made what is considered a derogatory and racist comment. He commented about the Honourable Rawiri Waititi’s moko kanohi. This is a traditional tattoo that covers the face, while a moko kauae is on … Read more
One.nz released their AI Trust Report today. It covers New Zealanders’ attitudes towards AI in 2025. Interestingly, it aligns to the research done by the AI Forum, PSA, InternetNZ, and DataCom. Additionally, many other New Zealand initiated research on AI show similar findings. While One.nz report didn’t mention Māori or Pacifika, it did report on … 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
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 … Read more
All three New Zealand mobile network operators – 2degrees, One NZ and Spark will be shutting down their 3G cell phone coverage later this year. For those of us with tech privilege, who have no digital inequity, we will enjoy further benefits of more capacity in the spectrum. This will create new technologies, new opportunities … Read more
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 … Read more
The New Zealand Department of Internal Affairs (DIA), commissioned an independent Facial Recognition Trial of their Identity Check system using DIA passport face images to test against. Overall, Māori data sovereignty principles were vacant. Buried in the report was high probability of bias against Māori. DIA now say they will further test after asked by … Read more
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 … Read more
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 … Read more
One of the 6 principals of Māori Data Sovereignty refers to jurisdictional considerations, or the requirement to store Māori data in New Zealand when appropriate. Jurisdictional considerations for Māori Data should include Māori Data that is tapu (sacred or sensitive) including not limited to: genetic data, personal health data and other private data about individuals, … Read more
Deepfakes are forms of digitally altered media — including photos, videos and audio clips — that seem to depict a real person. They are created by training an AI system on real clips featuring a person, and then using that AI system to generate realistic (yet inauthentic) new media. Deepfake use is becoming more common. … Read more
In a classic example of AI hallucinating or lying, Meta AI does lie to you. Or perhaps the AI engineers thought it would be funny to add the misinformation to Meta AI? There’s no way to disable Meta AI from either Facebook or Instagram. I asked Meta AI if I could disable it, and the … Read more