According to their media release, the Writer’s Toolbox is a New Zealand and Australian education company. They provide an educational writing programme, powered by patented AI, designed to help students master writing. It is having a serious impact on Māori students’ literacy achievements. After using Writer’s Toolbox [using a locally-built AI], Thornton School [Decile 5, … Read more
Following on from my two previous successful online webinars Artificial Intelligence Impacts and Preparation for Māori – Environment and Employment, on June 05, 2025 at 1pm I will be discussing the implications and benefits of AI with Māori IP, Art and Reo Māori. Free registration is here . The tickets are capped at 125. They have been … Read more
It’s a cultural norm for Māori to mihi or greet people with a ‘Kia ora’ or other salutation. This is done in person, 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 … Read more
Now, more than ever, it is important to learn the basics of Facial Recognition Technology (FRT) bias and the impacts on Māori communities, including the need to recognise Māori data sovereignty Principles. Recent developments include: New Zealand considering Facial Recognition Technology (FRT) for retail stores with an advisory panel of no Māori, AI drones for … Read more
AI principles guide the ethical development and deployment of AI systems by companies and other organisations, while AI disclaimers are statements that acknowledge AI-generated content or outcomes – see my previous post for more details. There is an international best practice benchmark set by the OECD which is widely accepted and adapted by many countries. … 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
If your business or web site uses AI, whether for content creation (emails, newsletters, web site) or customer service chatbots, you may want to consider publishing an AI disclaimer to alleviate the fears for your New Zealand customers. In addition, if you use Mātauranga Māori/Māori Data, you should also include this in your disclaimers either … Read more
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 … Read more
According to this article the uncertainty with the foreign exchange and the $NZ loosing to the $USA, cloud computing has increased by 14% since September 2024. In addition to the international uncertainly with global events and the need to maintain security and budgets are all creating risks for New Zealand businesses that use cloud computing. … 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
This research is a follow-on from my previous article about Data Jurisdiction and why many Māori Data Sovereignty Principles are no longer relevant, in particular this article will look at jurisdiction. The findings of this research show that most Māori (individuals, whānau, hapū, marae, Māori Tech company and Iwi) with a web site, email and … Read more
Many Māori and others have submitted the DNA samples via web sites such as Ancestory.com and 23andMe to ascertain their whakapapa, many without realising the cultural and privacy issues of doing so. Most often, you are giving away your rights to your own DNA that has all of your information about you and your ancestors. From … Read more
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 … 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
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 … Read more
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 … 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
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 … Read more