Māori cultural considerations with AI, Algorithms, Big Data and Robotics are discussed here as well as ethics and treaty of Waitangi values.
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
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
For millennia, combatants have sought to cripple adversaries by destroying the infrastructure that sustains them, poisoning wells, burning bridges, bombing railways and oil refineries. In the war now engulfing the Middle East, data centres have emerged as a new category of target. The conflict has produced what analysts believe are the first publicly confirmed physical … Read more
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, He Karetao, He Ātārangi” (A person, a puppet, a shadow). Each term describes … Read more
InternetNZ recently released their annual “New Zealand’s Internet Insights 2025 survey findings” report. The following extracted form the report looks at Māori usage and is largely unchanged data from 2010. The Artificial Intelligence remains the same as the previous year. Internet Use Māori are heavier internet users than NZ Europeans — 54% spend 4+ … 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
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
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
In New Zealand, a digital credential is a secure, digital version of something that proves who you are or what you’re entitled to, for example your identity, age, or role in a business that you can store in a wallet style phone or device app and present online or in person. This includes your digital … Read more
An AI & Generative AI Policy in education isn’t optional anymore. Schools and tertiary institutions are already surrounded by AI, whether they have a policy or not. Students are using ChatGPT style tools to draft essays, teachers are turning to AI to plan lessons, and admin teams are experimenting with AI for reporting, analytics, and … Read more
For the first time, the rohe of Te Taura Ora o Waiāriki (Te Arawa IMPB) will have access to a dashboard built from data specific to their people recognising mana motuhake and Māori data sovereignty. . This is a powerful shift in how Māori health realities are identified, acted upon and governed. Traditionally, health-data relevant … 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
Using paid, proprietary AI subscription services to build reo Māori and mātauranga models introduces serious risks of cultural appropriation, loss of control, and contested ownership. Māori have always been quick to adopt and adapt new technologies. Much of our traditional knowledge is only now being recognised as innovative within contemporary scientific fields. So when ChatGPT … Read more
After generations of successful assimilation of Māori culture by governments including Native Schools, Tohunga Suppression Act, The Hunn Report, etc, many Māori were left without knowing their identity. There has been an increasing trend for those Māori individuals to reclaim back that knowledge. For many people, they are disconnected from their families and communities, so … Read more
As a follow on from the findings of the State of the Nation Māori Data Governance 2025 Report, this is one of a series of articles analysing established Māori Data Governance Frameworks with a Te Ao Māori and Data Governance lens. This article presents a critical analysis of the Te Mana Raraunga The Māori Data … Read more