with Dr Karaitiana Taiuru
Māori cultural considerations with AI, Algorithms, Big Data and Robotics are discussed here as well as ethics and treaty of Waitangi values.
The Ministry for Regulation’s Responsible AI in Action guidance (May 2026) represents a credible foundation for regulators engaging with Artificial Intelligence. However, the guidance contains a significant and consequential gap: its treatment of Te Tiriti o Waitangi and Māori data sovereignty is underdeveloped, incorrect, outdated, and structurally undermined by the absence of Māori voices in … Read more
In 1907, the New Zealand Government passed an Act with a single purpose: to suppress tohunga and the traditional Māori knowledge and beliefs they held. It was not repealed until 1962. This was in addition to the Natives Schools Act, repression of reo Māori and culture and other systematic cultural erasure. I grew up seeing … Read more
The current coalition government has announced the elimination of approximately 8,700 public sector positions or 14% of the public workforce alongside NZ$2.4 billion in spending reductions over three years, with AI deployed as the replacement mechanism. The PSA has been direct in its assessment: AI is being used as a justification for politically driven job … Read more
In this article I extend my earlier analysis of Māori cultural perspectives on AI sentience and legal personhood to the specific and urgent case of agentic AI systems, those capable of autonomous, persistent, goal directed action across digital environments. I argue that Mead’s tikanga Māori framework that I have previously applied to static AI models … Read more
As AI systems grow more capable, companies appear increasingly willing to look beyond traditional engineering disciplines for guidance on questions that touch on consciousness, identity and what it means to interact meaningfully with a machine. On 13 April 2026, Google DeepMind announced it had hired philosopher Henry Shevlin to study machine consciousness, human AI relationships, … Read more
There is a pattern in New Zealand’s AI and data governance landscape that is rarely named directly, but it is immediately recognisable to anyone who has worked in this space. When organisations, government agencies, technology companies, universities, and research institutions decide they need Māori input into their AI and Data ethics frameworks, they do not, … Read more
I was honoured to be one of the 386 international AI ethics experts to contribute a short essay to the “Building a Human Resilience Infrastructure for the Age of AI: Experts Call for Radical Change Across Institutions, Social Structures” report and contribute a Te Ao Māori perspective to the Epistemic Vigilance: Discerning Truth, Illusion and … Read more
The past few days we are hearing about AI and recruitment issues with you a young man who faced bias. I am increasingly concerned that the media is not giving Māori any consideration with their AI bias stories, relying on academics for opinions and for them to talk about us like we are not capable … Read more
Meta’s Digital Ghost Patent: A Te Ao Māori Analysis IMPORTANT NOTICE FOR FACEBOOK AND META USERS On 30 December 2025, Meta was granted a United States patent that would allow its platforms to use Artificial Intelligence to construct a digital simulation of you, trained on your posts, messages, voice recordings, browsing history, and purchases and … Read more
Artificial intelligence is no longer an emerging technology on the horizon, it is here, transforming industries, reshaping workforces, and fundamentally altering how organisations create value. For New Zealand boards, AI represents both a profound opportunity and a significant governance challenge. Directors who treat AI as purely a technical matter, something to be delegated to the … Read more
He Tangata, He Karetao, He Ātārangi: A person, a puppet, a shadow I am excited to release, perhaps the world’s first Indigenous Peoples AI Framework for understanding and describing the nature of an Artificial Intelligence (AI). Drawing on mātauranga Māori, tikanga Māori, and te reo Māori, the framework is encapsulated in the whakatauāki :He Tangata, … Read more
A new paper I’ve written looks at Foodstuffs South Island’s facial recognition trial in Christchurch and raises serious questions about who bears the risk. The three trial stores sit in suburbs where Māori and Pacific populations are well below the city average. The stores excluded from the trial are in the suburbs with the highest … Read more
New Zealand has developed a comprehensive suite of AI governance instruments, including the Algorithm Charter (Stats NZ, 2020), Privacy Act 2020, Digital Identity Services Trust Framework Act 2023, Biometric Processing Privacy Code 2025 (Office of the Privacy Commissioner, 2025), and responsible AI guidance for both public and private sectors (Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, … Read more
The New Zealand Reserve Bank released a report “Assessing AI and Robotics Exposure in the New Zealand Labour Market Using Large Language Models“. The analysis finds that Māori workers appear to have lower exposure to AI and robotics than other groups. While this may initially seem positive, it risks being misinterpreted. In the report, higher AI … Read more
This document provides governance guidance for New Zealand organisations considering the deployment of autonomous AI agents. It is not legal advice. It is written by a practitioner with governance experience in New Zealand and expertise in international AI governance. Autonomous AI agents such as OpenClaw represent a material shift in organisational risk. Unlike conventional AI, … 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
When Clinical Algorithms Don’t See Us. Māori Data Sovereignty Approaches to Detecting and Mitigating Bias in Health AI The rapid adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) and algorithmic decision support in health systems is unfolding within long standing patterns of inequity for Indigenous peoples. In Aotearoa New Zealand, Māori already experience systematic barriers to care, racism, … Read more
Tikanga Māori Perspectives on Forensic Data: Dr Angela Clark on Digital Governance for Tūpāpaku in Aotearoa New Zealand Emerging forensic technologies, high-resolution imaging, 3D reconstructions, and AI-assisted analysis are rapidly changing how data from tūpāpaku (the deceased) is created, used, shared, and stored in Aotearoa New Zealand. While these tools can improve identification outcomes and … Read more