# Taiuru & Associates Ltd > with Dr Karaitiana Taiuru --- ## Pages - [Online Booking with Dr Karaitiana Taiuru](https://www.taiuru.co.nz/contact/online-booking/): If you can not see the booking form below,please click here. - [Intelectual Property Rights](https://www.taiuru.co.nz/brand-advise/): Commercial and non profits and brand owners are seeking to use Māori names and objects, yet are not sure what... - [Generative AI Statement](https://www.taiuru.co.nz/generative-ai-statement/): Transparency is key – should we ever generate an image or text solely or in part, using Generative AI, there... - [About Us](https://www.taiuru.co.nz/about-taiuru-associates/): We are a boutique company with expertise in AI/Data, Māori Data Sovereignty implementation and Emerging Technologies (Digital and Genetic) Ethics,... - [Māori Data Sovereignty Statement](https://www.taiuru.co.nz/maori-data-sovereignty-statement/): We acknowledge that and implement Māori Data Sovereignty Tino Rangatiratnaga o Raraunga. We acknowledge that Māori Data is Digital or... - [Disclaimer & Copyright](https://www.taiuru.co.nz/disclaimer-copyright/): Disclaimer Unless otherwise stated, all information in this web site is written by a human being and is the personal... - [Privacy Statement](https://www.taiuru.co.nz/privacy-statement/): While the Privacy Commission Privacy Statement Generator states we do not need a Privacy statement, as a Māori company, fronted... - [Services](https://www.taiuru.co.nz/services/): AI services We offer professional and confidential services including: Services include but are not limited to: Te Tiriti/Kaupapa Māori Centric... - [Critical Indigenous Research Services](https://www.taiuru.co.nz/research/): I provide a number of academic 0. x fte services to grant applications in all areas of mātauranga Māori/Vision Mātauranga... - [Intelectual Property Rights (IP)](https://www.taiuru.co.nz/intelectual-property-rights/): Commercial and non profits and brand owners are seeking to use Māori names and objects, yet are not sure what... - [Published by Karaitiana Taiuru](https://www.taiuru.co.nz/published/): - [Terms of Engagement](https://www.taiuru.co.nz/terms-of-engagement/): Terms of Engagement (Updated January 14, 2025). These Terms of Engagement (the Terms) apply in respect of all work carried... - [Presentations, Podcasts and Lectures](https://www.taiuru.co.nz/conference-presentations/): This page has been permanently moved to https://www. taiuru. co. nz/published/ Please update your bookmarks. - [Media Contributions](https://www.taiuru.co.nz/in-the-media/): This page has been permanently moved to https://www. taiuru. co. nz/published/ Please update your bookmarks. - [Blog - Te Kete o Karaitiana Taiuru](https://www.taiuru.co.nz/blog-2/): Dr Karaitiana Taiuru regularly composes blog posts on topics relating to Māori and Artificial Intelligence, Data Sovereignty, Safety, Cultural Appropriation... - [Contact](https://www.taiuru.co.nz/contact/): Loading... --- ## Posts - [Risks of AI Agents to Māori](https://www.taiuru.co.nz/risks-of-ai-agents-to-maori/): AI Agents are to Māori what Captain Cook and his Endeavour Ship and crew were. If Māori understood the challenges... - [email list](https://www.taiuru.co.nz/email-list/): If you can not see the sign up form below, please visit here for the Google Form. Loading... - [Loss of mātauranga to AI](https://www.taiuru.co.nz/loss-of-matauranga-to-ai/): Using paid AI subscription models to create AI reo and mātauranga models carries risks of cultural appropriation and ownership issues.... - [AI and Pepeha](https://www.taiuru.co.nz/ai-and-pepeha/): After generations of successful assimilation of Māori culture by governments including Native Schools, Tohunga Suppression Act, The Hunn Report, etc,... - [Seminar on Sovereign Computers, software and Servers for Home and Office](https://www.taiuru.co.nz/seminar-on-sovereign-computers-software-and-servers-for-home-and-office/): Invitation to join me Wednesday, October 22 · 12 – 1pm while I speak with Open Source practitioner and Tangata... - [NZ and Australia companies prioritise Data Sovereignty](https://www.taiuru.co.nz/nz-and-australia-companies-prioritise-data-sovereignty/): The Datacom 2025 ANZ Cloud and Infrastructure Report reveals a marked escalation in concerns surrounding data sovereignty among organisations across... - [Meta Algorithms discriminate NZ businesses](https://www.taiuru.co.nz/meta-algorithms-discriminate-nz-businesses/): Recently, RNZ identified more than 30 New Zealanders, including a number of small businesses who have had their Facebook or... - [AI Facial Detection Technology miss-identified 3 Māori men](https://www.taiuru.co.nz/ai-miss-identifief-two-maori-men/): Google AI search that uses Face Detection Technology miss-identified me and two other Māori men by interchanging images and representing... - [Māori Insights on Global Data Risks](https://www.taiuru.co.nz/maori-insights-global-data-risks/): Data Sovereignty is not just a Māori issue, but a global issue that New Zealand must address now. Another follow... - [Critical Analysis of Te Mana Raraunga Data Principles](https://www.taiuru.co.nz/critical-analysis-mana-raraunga/): As a follow on from the findings of the State of the Nation Māori Data Governance 2025 Report, this is... - [Reo Māori with Artificial Intelligence](https://www.taiuru.co.nz/reo-maori-with-artificial-intelligence/): A quick snapshot of the usage of the Māori language in the New Zealand Artificial Intelligence communities, while also celebrating... - [Māori Data Governance Report](https://www.taiuru.co.nz/maori-data-governance-in-2025/): This report examines the current landscape of Māori data sovereignty and governance in New Zealand. The research, conducted over 12... - [NZ AI productivity report 3 and Māori](https://www.taiuru.co.nz/nz-ai-productivity-report-3-maori/): The AI Forum released their third “BI-ANNUAL SNAPSHOT AI IN ACTION Exploring the Impact of Artificial Intelligence on New Zealand’s... - [Protecting Māori from AI and algorithmic bias](https://www.taiuru.co.nz/protecting-maori-from-algorithmic-bias/): The digital future is being written right now. AI is already here. Māori are at a crossroads. Māori Data Sovereignty... - [AI will not save our screen industry](https://www.taiuru.co.nz/ai-nz-screen-industry/): Below is a script I used for a debate about if AI will replace humans in the Aotearoa screen industry... - [Hapū and Marae Data Sovereignty Podcast](https://www.taiuru.co.nz/hapu-and-marae-data-sovereignty-podcast/): Māori communities such as hapū, marae, taurahere, urban Māori and Māori organisation have always enacted sovereignty over their taonga, and... - [Image of Māori women used in racist adverts](https://www.taiuru.co.nz/image-of-maori-women-used-in-racist-adverts/): Aukaha News story of a Māori women Ellen Tamati was woken my her mokopuna today to hear that her image... - [Auckland Transport's costly AI governance mistake](https://www.taiuru.co.nz/auckland-transports-costly-ai-governance-mistake/): The basics of AI governance stakeholder interactions were ignored by Auckland Transport (AT) with the roll out of their Car... - [New Zealand and Māori AI Sovereignty](https://www.taiuru.co.nz/new-zealand-and-maori-ai-sovereignty/): This article considers why building sovereign AI capability within New Zealand is not just a technological imperative, it is a... - [Māori AI Sovereignty Principles](https://www.taiuru.co.nz/maori-ai-sovereignty-principles/): Sovereign AI is about keeping control over our future. Tino rangatiratanga mō tātou, ā, mō ngā uri ā muri ake... - [Gen AI for Ethical use of Mātauranga](https://www.taiuru.co.nz/ai-for-ethical-use-matauranga/): Below is a Gen AI for Ethical use of Mātauranga template statement that can be copied and pasted for use... - [AI generated video lessons of not what to do](https://www.taiuru.co.nz/ai-generated-video-lessons-of-not-what-to-do/): This YouTube video clip is a perfect example of why AI will not replace our talented people in the screen... - [AI explained using mātauranga Māori](https://www.taiuru.co.nz/ai-explained-matauranga/): I have over the years shared some mātauranga Māori and compared it to AI, I am hoping to revive our... - [Customary Māori Values and Copyright Legislation for Facial Recognition Technology (FRT)](https://www.taiuru.co.nz/maori-copyright-for-frt/): For many years, I have written about the risks that Māori and other minority communities are confronted with, from emerging... - [NZ AI Strategy released - Te Ao Māori](https://www.taiuru.co.nz/nz-ai-strategy-released/): Yesterday the New Zealand Government released its AI Strategy and advise to small businesses. The Strategy aligns with OECD AI... - [Benefits to Māori of no Census](https://www.taiuru.co.nz/benefits-to-maori-of-no-census/): The recent announcement by the government that the Census will cease in 2028 has been met with various reactions. Māori... - [Good news AI case study for Māori education](https://www.taiuru.co.nz/good-news-ai-case-study-for-maori-education/): According to their media release, the Writer’s Toolbox, a New Zealand and Australian education company who provide an educational writing... - [Cyber activism removes Toitū te Tiriti Lawyer form social media](https://www.taiuru.co.nz/cyber-activism-removes-toitu-te-tiriti-lawyer-form-social-media/): Toitū te Tiriti Lawyer, Tania Waikato who has become prominent online with sharing legal advise, tutorials about how to write... - [AI with IP Art and Reo webinar](https://www.taiuru.co.nz/ai-with-ip-art-and-reo-webinar/): We successfully ran another free over subscribed (150 people) webinar, this month. The topic was on Māori and IP rights... - [Scribble moko online protest with unintended consequences](https://www.taiuru.co.nz/scribble-protest-consequences/): Earlier this week the Honourable Winston Peters, in an open parliament debate about the punishment of three politicians of the... - [Kiwi's common concerns of AI](https://www.taiuru.co.nz/kiwis-common-concerns-of-ai/): One. nz released their AI Trust Report New Zealanders’ attitudes towards AI in 2025 today. Interestingly, it aligns to the... - [Māori stats re AI, FRT and Privacy](https://www.taiuru.co.nz/maori-stats-re-ai-frt-and-privacy/): The latest research by the Privacy Commission “Research on Privacy Concerns and Use of Personal Information March 2025” has a... - [Trust, attitudes and use of AI in NZ](https://www.taiuru.co.nz/trust-attitudes-and-use-of-ai-in-nz/): The global study titled “Trust, attitudes and use of Artificial Intelligence: A global study 2025” reveals that while a significant... - [AI with Māori IP, Art and Reo](https://www.taiuru.co.nz/ai-with-maori-ip-art-and-reo/): Following on from my two previous successful online webinars Artificial Intelligence Impacts and Preparation for Māori – Environment and Employment,... - [AI is changing Māori culture](https://www.taiuru.co.nz/ai-is-changing-maori-culture/): It’s a cultural norm for Māori to mihi or greet people with a ‘Kia ora’ or other salutation when in... - [Māori and AI Book Chapter](https://www.taiuru.co.nz/maori-and-ai-book-chapter/): I had the privilege to contribute a chapter about benefits to Māori in the book ” Ten perspectives on Artificial... - [Intro to Facial Recognition bias](https://www.taiuru.co.nz/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... - [Risks of AI Action Figure Trend](https://www.taiuru.co.nz/ai-action-figure-trend-risks/): The AI action figure trend, where users generate personalised or stylised figures using AI tools (like custom avatars, toy-like images,... - [NZ AI Productivity Report and Māori](https://www.taiuru.co.nz/nz-ai-productivity-report-and-maori/): The Artificial Intelligence Forum of New Zealand (AI Forum) Te Kāhui Atamai Iahiko o Aotearoa, a purpose-driven, not-for-profit, non-governmental organisation... - [AI Principles in Aotearoa NZ](https://www.taiuru.co.nz/ai-principles-in-aotearoa-nz/): AI principles guide the ethical development and deployment of AI systems by companies and other organisations, while AI disclaimers are... - [Reo Māori in Russian disinformation network](https://www.taiuru.co.nz/reo-maori-in-russian-disinformatio/): In 2014, I wrote how Google Translate brought te reo Māori into the new digital world with Spam and Phishing,... - [Monthly Te Ao Māori AI Webinars](https://www.taiuru.co.nz/monthly-te-ao-maori-ai-webinars/): I am now offering free webinars from a Te Ao Māori perspective to assist Māori communities and those who interact... - [AI Disclaimers](https://www.taiuru.co.nz/ai-disclaimers-and-principles/): If your business or web site uses AI, whether for content creation (emails, newsletters, web site) or customer service chatbots,... - [NZ Government Facial Recognition Technology](https://www.taiuru.co.nz/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,... - [3G mobile coverage in NZ to be cut](https://www.taiuru.co.nz/3g-mobile-coverage-in-nz-to-be-cut/): All three New Zealand mobile network operators – 2degrees, One NZ and Spark will be shutting down their 3G cell... - [NZ Government Release AI Framework](https://www.taiuru.co.nz/nz-government-release-ai-framework/): The New Zealand Government this week this week (January 29, 2025) released its first non binding AI Framework for the... - [DeepSeek versus ChatGPT for Māori](https://www.taiuru.co.nz/deepseek-versus-chatgpt-for-maori/): The introduction of the Chinese AI DeepSeek has been a popular media topic this week. Some of the topics include... - [Financial considerations for Māori and NZ Data Sovereignty](https://www.taiuru.co.nz/financial-incentives-for-maori-and-nz-data-sovereignty/): According to this article the uncertainty with the foreign exchange and the $NZ loosing to the $USA, cloud computing has... - [Data Leakage and AI Usage Policy](https://www.taiuru.co.nz/data-leakage-and-ai-usage-policy/): Leaking of sensitive corporate and government data via Generative AI such as ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, Claude, and Perplexity is an... - [Treaty Principals Bill Scaremongering](https://www.taiuru.co.nz/treaty-principals-bill-and-scaremongering/): Misleading journalism about the Treaty Principals Bill web site being attacked could lead to similar actions of accusations of interference... - [You don’t have to pay the Microsoft 365 price increase](https://www.taiuru.co.nz/you-dont-have-to-pay-the-microsoft-365-price-increase/): If you are using Microsoft Office products (most people still do) and not other free and sovereign options you likely... - [AI Plagiarism of Māori Data and Storage](https://www.taiuru.co.nz/ai-plagiarism-of-maori-data-and-storage/): It is a well documented fact in New Zealand and all over the world, that Artificial Intelligence and in particular... - [Māori Data Jurisdiction](https://www.taiuru.co.nz/maori-data-jurisdictional-data-analysis/): This research is a follow-on from my previous article about Data Jurisdiction and why many Māori Data Sovereignty Principles are... - [IAAP 2024 Resource List](https://www.taiuru.co.nz/iaap-2024/): References used by Dr Karaitiana Taiuru in the presentation “Indigenous Privacy Perspectives from Aotearoa/New Zealand” at the IAAP ANZ Summit... - [Facial Recognition trial report obfuscates risks to Māori](https://www.taiuru.co.nz/dia-facial-recognition-trial-report-obfuscate-risks-to-maori/): The New Zealand Department of Internal Affairs (DIA), commissioned an independent Facial Recognition Trial of their Identity Check system using... - [Inconsistencies with Facial Recognition Trial](https://www.taiuru.co.nz/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... - [Te Ao Māori perspective of Privacy with DNA](https://www.taiuru.co.nz/te-ao-maori-perspective-of-privacy-with-dna/): Many Māori and others have submitted the DNA samples via web sites such as Ancestory. com and 23andMe to ascertain... - [Treatment of Māori language in language modelling](https://www.taiuru.co.nz/treatment-of-maori-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,... - [X (Formerly Twitter) is allowing 3rd parties to train AI on its data starting Nov 15](https://www.taiuru.co.nz/x-formerly-twitter-to-train-ai-on-its-data/): Earlier this week X (formerly Twitter) updated its Privacy Policy to indicate that it would allow third-party “collaborators” to train... - [Demise of the io domain name](https://www.taiuru.co.nz/io-domain-name/): The dot io domain name is a common General Top Level Domain Name (GTLD) for many tech companies, but also... - [Māori and Iwi investments in NZ data centres](https://www.taiuru.co.nz/maori-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... - [First New Zealand government agency to trial Generative AI](https://www.taiuru.co.nz/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... - [Cross-agency survey of use cases for Artificial Intelligence](https://www.taiuru.co.nz/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).... - [Māori and First Nations Australia musicians views of Artificial Intelligence (AI)](https://www.taiuru.co.nz/maori-and-first-nations-australia-musicians-artificial-intelligence-views/): New Zealand and Australian musicians were surveyed about their views of Artificial Intelligence and its impacts on their music, in... - [How AI can help Indigenous language revitalisation, and why data sovereignty is important](https://www.taiuru.co.nz/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... - [Jurisdictional Māori Data Sovereignty introduction](https://www.taiuru.co.nz/jurisdictional-maori-data-sovereignty/): One of the 6 principals of Māori Data Sovereignty refers to jurisdictional considerations, or the requirement to store Māori data... - [The Phantom Article 4 of Te Tiriti o Waitangi](https://www.taiuru.co.nz/the-phantom-article-4-of-te-tiriti-o-waitangi/): This article debunks the false narrative that Te Tiriti o Waitangi has a hidden or overlooked Article 4 that gave... - [ChatGPT and its gender bias with te reo Māori](https://www.taiuru.co.nz/chatgpt-and-its-gender-bias-with-te-reo-maori/): This article looks at the gender bias with Māori language translations using the non gender specific pronoun in the Māori... - [Governance issues, Māori Data Sovereignty and Privacy Issues with Slack](https://www.taiuru.co.nz/governance-issues-maori-data-sovereignty-privacy-issues-with-slack/): Slack is a cloud-based team communication platform developed by Slack Technologies, which has been owned by Salesforce since 2020. Slack... - [Safeguarding your whānau, iwi, hapū, marae, rōpū or your business from AI-generated deep fakes](https://www.taiuru.co.nz/safeguarding-your-whanau-iwi-hapu-marae-ropu-or-your-business-from-ai-generated-deep-fakes/): Deepfakes are forms of digitally altered media — including photos, videos and audio clips — that seem to depict a... - [You really can't disable Facebook's Meta AI tool](https://www.taiuru.co.nz/you-really-cant-disable-facebooks-meta-ai-tool/): In a classic example of AI hallucinating or lying, Meta AI does lie to you. Or perhaps the AI engineers... - [First Māori woman victim in facial recognition trial in a month](https://www.taiuru.co.nz/first-maori-woman-victim-in-facial-recognition-trial-in-a-month/): Only 5 weeks ago I warned Facial Recognition Technology bias in the Foodstuffs trial was technically likely and not a... - [AI media weekly commentary with Māori and Indigenous perspectives April 10](https://www.taiuru.co.nz/ai-media-weekly-commentary-april10/): This is the second media commendatory on Māori perspectives that relate to AI stories in the media and developments. Again,... - [Māori AI and data stories in the media this week](https://www.taiuru.co.nz/maori-ai-and-data-in-the-media-this-week/): I provide my commentary of this weeks 6 media stories of Māori related news regarding Artificial Intelligence and Data Sovereignty.... - [Māori Voices in the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Landscape of Aotearoa New Zealand](https://www.taiuru.co.nz/maori-voices-in-the-artificial-intelligence-ai-landscape-new-zealand/): Māori Peoples are at the cross roads with Artificial Intelligence and other emerging technologies; We can either turn right and... - [Artificial Intelligence Regulation from a Māori Perspective](https://www.taiuru.co.nz/artificial-intelligence-regulation-from-a-maori-perspective/): This thought-provoking commentary delves into the intersection of te ao Māori and Artificial Intelligence (AI) regulation. While many Māori have... - [Māori Opinions and Views Framework](https://www.taiuru.co.nz/maori-opinions-and-views-framework/): This article explores why there is no ‘one Māori opinion’ and aims to dispel media and politicians comments about “Māori... - [Facial Recognition and Artificial Intelligence Profiling](https://www.taiuru.co.nz/facial-recognition-and-artificial-intelligence-profiling/): This article was originally commissioned by Ngā Toki Whakarururanga for a general audience. For a Te Ao Māori perspective, refer... - [Scammers target Māori Tangi](https://www.taiuru.co.nz/scammers-target-maori-tangi/): In a new threat to Māori online, a new scam is increasing where scammers are creating false social media accounts... - [Understanding Domain Names in New Zealand](https://www.taiuru.co.nz/understanding-domain-names-in-new-zealand/): With information relating to . iwi. nz and . maori. nz and domain name disputes (2016) Karaitiana N Taiuru and... - [Feasibility of maori as a new Internet address](https://www.taiuru.co.nz/feasibility-of-maori-as-a-new-internet-address/): First published in 2012 as a pdf and republished in 2024. Discussion about the costs, procedures and the currently vast... - [Māori being used as 'guinea pigs' for facial recognition tech by MSD](https://www.taiuru.co.nz/maori-being-used-as-guinea-pigs-for-facial-recognition-tech-by-msd/): This post elaborates on my RNZ interview about the Ministry of Social Development (MSD) rolling out Facial Recognition Technology for... - [6 Te Tiriti Based Artificial Intelligence Ethical Principles by Karaitiana Taiuru](https://www.taiuru.co.nz/ai-principles/): These peer reviewed principles were originally written by Dr Karaitiana Taiuru, to provide a Māori and Te Tiriti perspective on... - [Protecting Mātauranga on web sites from ChatGPT and Search Engines](https://www.taiuru.co.nz/protecting-matauranga-on-web-sites-from-chatgpt-and-search-engines/): This article is primarily for Māori web site content owners who may have some mātauranga Māori on their web sites... - [Te Tiriti o Waitangi Principles for Robotics](https://www.taiuru.co.nz/te-tiriti-o-waitangi-principles-for-robotics/): These principles have been adapted to general robotics for both the industry and research to better assist the industry to... - [Is anonymised Māori Data a Taonga?](https://www.taiuru.co.nz/is-anonymised-maori-data-a-taonga/): Anonymised Data is a western perspective for data that is anonymous as they human eye can’t see where the data... - [Is Synthetic Data a Taonga?](https://www.taiuru.co.nz/is-synthetic-data-a-taonga/): This brief post will discuss and analyse if synthetic digital data that is used with Māori Data, is itself Māori... - [Artificial Intelligence and Mātauranga Sovereignty](https://www.taiuru.co.nz/artificial-intelligence-matauranga-sovereignty/): I was honoured to present at the prestigious Gibbon Lectures earlier this year and to be hosted by the School... - [Transferring iwi.nz](https://www.taiuru.co.nz/trasnsfering-iwi-nz/): How do I transfer my domain name out of the Domain Name Commision holding registrar to my registrar/domain name provider... - [Te Reo Māori revitalisation and adaption with AI](https://www.taiuru.co.nz/maori-language-revitalisation-with-ai/): ChatGPT has become a household name for many, and is usually in the mainstream media each day. There has been... - [Te Ao Māori considerations of AI with the dead and personal Data](https://www.taiuru.co.nz/te-ao-maori-considerations-of-ai-with-the-dead-and-with-personal-data/): Māori Data Sovereignty is now more crucial than ever, with “Dr. Pratik Desai, a Silicon Valley computer scientist who has... - [Google Civil Rights Audit - An opportunity for a Te Tiriti audit](https://www.taiuru.co.nz/google-civil-rights-audit-an-opportunity-for-a-te-tiriti-audit/): On Friday (Saturday NZT) Google released a Civil Rights Audit that it had voluntarily contracted an external law firm WilmerHale... - [Chatbots need Indigenous Beta testers](https://www.taiuru.co.nz/chatbots-need-indigenous-beta-testers/): Microsoft recently announced that it was upgrading it’s search engine Bing’ to include AI from OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT.... - [Māori culture and language observations with ChatGPT](https://www.taiuru.co.nz/maori-culture-language-with-chatgpt/): ChatGPT (Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer) is a chatbot launched by OpenAI in November 2022. It has been discussed by international... - [Indigenous versus Māori Data Sovereignty](https://www.taiuru.co.nz/indigenous-versus-maori-data-sovereignty/): This article will introduce the many notions of Indigenous Data and Māori Data Sovereignty and explain the differences. It is... - [Māori Data Sovereignty in the Agriculture industry](https://www.taiuru.co.nz/maori-data-sovereignty-in-the-agriculture-industry/): Māori Data Sovereignty with Agriculture Data and how it could assist the Agriculture industry. A perspective piece co authored with... - [Maori a popular search term with porn](https://www.taiuru.co.nz/maori-a-popular-search-term-with-porn/): WARNING: This article should be read by adults and in conjunction to having knowledge of the over representation of Māori... - [The NZ Supreme Court Judgement and the impacts to Māori Data Sovereignty](https://www.taiuru.co.nz/the-nz-supreme-court-judgement-and-the-impacts-to-maori-data-sovereignty/): This is an opinion piece as a Tikanga practitioner and Māori Data expert who is not a lawyer and has... - [A Māori cultural perspective of AI/machine sentience](https://www.taiuru.co.nz/a-maori-cultural-perspective-of-ai-machine-sentience/): This is a copy of the opinion piece I wrote in the publication Goffi E. R. , Momcilovic A. ,... - [Māori Data Sovereignty Whakataukī](https://www.taiuru.co.nz/maori-data-sovereignty-whakatauaki/): The following whakataukī summarises the whole notion and idea of Māori Data Sovereignty and the importance that Māori Data Sovereignty... - [ReMāorification origins of Māori Data, Sovereignty and Governance](https://www.taiuru.co.nz/maorification-origins-of-maori-data-sovereignty-and-governance/): This is brief opinion piece uses traditional knowledge to show Māori Data, Māori Data Sovereignty and Māori Data Governance has... --- # # Detailed Content ## Pages If you can not see the booking form below,please click here. --- Commercial and non profits and brand owners are seeking to use Māori names and objects, yet are not sure what is appropriate or where to seek assistance. We have seen in the media that some brand owners are publicly harassed and told they are appropriating Māori culture, when in many cases the accusations are unfounded with no understanding of the brand other than a non Māori is using te reo Māori. Therefore I provide a detailed report for business start ups, brand owners and non Māori who want to use a Māori in their products and branding. Included in the report are key phrases that you can use if questioned. I offer these reports for a flat fee of $399. 00 plus GST pursuant to my terms of engagement. This includes a 15 minute Zoom meeting to meet with you. Please use the Contact Form to contact me. Useful resources I have produced a free Māori Cultural Branding Guidelines that may be useful before engaging with me. Two former brand owners who I have assisted and publicly share my advise are: My Whānau an Australian company https://www. mywhanau. com. au/ Hapū Helpers a New Zealand organisation who initially received unfair criticism and poor advice until I assisted https://hapuhelpers. co. nz A collection of posts I have written about cultural appropriation, noting my earlier posts with UK Craft beer brewers resulted in significant decline of appropriation in the industry and New Zealand guidelines were created. Selected media articles I have commented... --- Transparency is key - should we ever generate an image or text solely or in part, using Generative AI, there will be a disclaimer associated with the image or the text stating that it is AI generated, the AI name and the prompts that were used. Generative AI is not yet capable of creating Māori knowledge at an expert level. However, any information that utilises Generative AI, will always be checked by humans and the above disclaimer applied. No information that is generated with Generative AI should be considered as authoritative. We don't incorporate confidential, sensitive, mātauranga Māori, or personal information into a publicly available Generative Al tool. Most images on this site from 2024 onwards have been generated using a Generative AI and copied from web sites that offer the images for free. Any email sent from the taiuru. co. nz and taiuru. maori. nz domains will be entirely written by a human unless otherwise stated. All emails will have the following disclaimer: "DISCLAIMER: This mail was entirely written by a human. No content was generated by AI. Also, I do not engage in online meetings/lectures where AI bots are present. " AI chatbot disclaimer This site and our serves do not use any chatbots, AI agents, LLM's etc. Last updated March 26, 2025. --- We are a boutique company with expertise in AI/Data, Māori Data Sovereignty implementation and Emerging Technologies (Digital and Genetic) Ethics, Māori Intelectual Property Rights and academic research with a niche research interest in critical Indigenous research using kaupapa Māori methodologies. Led by Dr Karaitiana Taiuru, our uniqueness is we are industry based first, academics next, so we can operate over all industries and contract in other specialists on a need to basis ensuring that we can appropriately cater to all work. Why is it important to include Māori governance in the development of AI? Combining western ethics and Māori traditional knowledge allows Dr Taiuru to write about and practice Māori AI and Data Ethics which are unique to and benefit Māori. We have seen multiple systems in Education, Health, Corrections, Global warming, Justice etc. , all fail Māori as they were designed, implemented and managed by non-Māori to cater to and for Māori. We have already seen the intergenerational impacts of western views being used to create solutions for Māori including the Native Schools Act, Tohunga Suppression Act, Hunn Report and many other failed initiatives government lead initiatives. So now terms such as co design are common terms in New Zealand as we have seen intergenerational impacts to Māori due to not co designing. AI and other emerging technologies will be the same without Māori ethics and engagement. Internationally we have already seen many examples in America where new technologies that are largely created by middle class, white men from... --- We acknowledge that and implement Māori Data Sovereignty Tino Rangatiratnaga o Raraunga. We acknowledge that Māori Data is Digital or digitisable information or knowledge that is about or from Māori people, language, culture, resources, or environments. Māori Data is a Taonga and subject to Māori Governance and that Māori Data Sovereignty is Māori Data Governance. The principles, structures, accountability mechanisms, legal instruments, and policies through which Māori exercise control over Māori data. --- Disclaimer Unless otherwise stated, all information in this web site is written by a human being and is the personal opinion of Dr Karaitiana Taiuru and does not reflect the views of any affiliations of Dr Taiuru. Copyright This web site uses two forms of licences. Unless otherwise stated, this web site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4. 0 International License. You are free to: Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially. The licensor cannot revoke these freedoms as long as you follow the license terms. Under the following terms: Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use. No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits. The exception is where a post states that is it uses a Kaitiakitanga; Māori Data Sovereignty Licence 1. 1. Preamble Māori Data Sovereignty refers to the inherent rights and interests of Māori, whānau, hapū, marae, iwi and Māori organisations have in relation to the creation, collection, access, analysis, interpretation, management, dissemination, re-use and control of data relating to Māori, whānau, hapū, marae, iwi and Māori organisations as guaranteed in He Whakaputanga and or Te Tiriti... --- While the Privacy Commission Privacy Statement Generator states we do not need a Privacy statement, as a Māori company, fronted by a leading Māori authority with Māori Data Sovereignty, we will explicitly state our commitment, our rangatiratanga to all of this sites visitors. This should be read in conjunction with our Māori Data Sovereignty statement. This site does not automatically collect any personal information. This site is built in WordPress which uses session and comment cookies. This site uses Google Analytics which uses a set of cookies to collect information and report site usage statistics without personally identifying individual visitors to Google. ‘_ga’, the main cookie used by Google Analytics, enables a service to distinguish one visitor from another and lasts for 2 years. Any site that implements Google Analytics, including Google services, uses the ‘_ga’ cookie. Each ‘_ga’ cookie is unique to the specific property, so it cannot be used to track a given user or browser across unrelated websites. The contact form uses Google Forms and Google Spreadsheet. On a regular basis all details are deleted from the Google Spreadsheet. For more information about Google Cookies visit https://policies. google. com/technologies/cookies? hl=en-US --- AI services We offer professional and confidential services including: Services include but are not limited to: Te Tiriti/Kaupapa Māori Centric Algorithmic Impact Assessments Te Tiriti/Kaupapa Māori Centric AI Health Checks Te Tiriti Kaupapa Māori AI Framework creation and adaption Te Tiriti AI Audits Māori Ethics with AI: reports, plans and implementation Privacy Impact assessments with a Te Ao Māori/Tikanga lens Policy reviews Governance Training including with AI and Māori issues Contact for an engagement or for a follow up conversation. Māori Data Sovereignty Services Cloud Repatriation Analysis and plans with a Te Tiriti focus Māori Data Sovereignty Audits and system compliance Policy reviews to ensure Te Tiriti is recognised and Māori Data Sovereignty is appropriately planned while mātauranga Māori is at the forefront of Māori Data Sovereignty projects. Māori Data Sovereignty governance and operational training --- I provide a number of academic 0. x fte services to grant applications in all areas of mātauranga Māori/Vision Mātauranga across the STEM discipline (Health/Environment), Artificial Intelligence, Māori Data Sovereignty, Māori Intellectual Property Rights, Tikanga, Tech, Māori engagement, advisor roles, researcher/assistant researcher, Waitangi Tribunal claims and may other applicable roles. My primary expertise is with Kaupapa Māori Research, decolonising western constructs and Qualitative Research methodologies. I am also interested in co authoring papers and international collaborations. Qualifications include a Masters with Distinction in Indigenous and Māori Leadership from the University of Canterbury and a PhD from Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiārangi with my dissertation Tikanga Sovereignty with genetic materials. More details about my professional career here or via my LinkedIn profile. I have an up to date MBIE formatted CV and most New Zealand Universities have my company registered with their financial departments. Current 0. x positions include a Marsden Grant and a number of MBIE grants with universities and CRI’s. A selection of my publications are available at https://taiuru. co. nz/published/ --- Commercial and non profits and brand owners are seeking to use Māori names and objects, yet are not sure what is appropriate or where to seek assistance. We have seen in the media that some brand owners are publicly harassed and told they are appropriating Māori culture, when in many cases the accusations are unfounded with no understanding of the brand other than a non Māori is using te reo Māori. We provide a detailed report for business start ups, brand owners and non Māori who want to use a Māori in their products and branding. Included in the report are key phrases that you can use if questioned. I offer these reports for a flat fee of $399. 00 plus GST pursuant to my terms of engagement. This includes an optional 15 minute Zoom meeting to meet with you. Please use the Contact Form to contact me. Useful resources I have produced a free Māori Cultural Branding Guidelines that may be useful before engaging with me. Also IPONZ have a useful Māori guidelines publication https://www. iponz. govt. nz/get-ip/trade-marks/practice-guidelines/current/maori-advisory-committee-and-maori-trade-marks/ Two former brand owners who I have assisted and publicly share my advise are: My Whānau an Australian company https://www. mywhanau. com. au/ Hapū Helpers a New Zealand organisation who initially received unfair criticism and poor advice until I assisted https://hapuhelpers. co. nz A collection of posts I have written about cultural appropriation, noting my earlier posts with UK Craft beer brewers resulted in significant decline of appropriation in the industry... --- Books Tikanga Tawhito Tikanga Hou Kaitiaki Guidelines for DNA Research, Storage and Seed Banks with Taonga Materials (2022) https://natlib. govt. nz/records/47981535? search%5Bi%5D%5Bcategory%5D=Books&search%5Bpath%5D=items&search%5Btext%5D=taiuru A compendium of Māori data Sovereignty (2022) https://natlib. govt. nz/records/47919277? search%5Bi%5D%5Bcategory%5D=Books&search%5Bpath%5D=items&search%5Btext%5D=taiuru Treaty of Waitangi/Te Tiriti and Māori Ethics Guidelines for: AI, Algorithms, Data and IOT (2020). A dictionary of Māori and social media terms: English – Māori (2016), Edition 3. Word list and analysis of te reo Moriori (2016). Māori activism and hidden achievements in New Zealand’s internet domain name system (2016) Baby names : Christian, Mormon and non religious Māori first names and their equivalent English name (2016) Māori ICT groups analysis and directory (2016) New Zealand government response to Te Reo Māori email addresses (2015) A dictionary of Māori computer related terms: English – Māori (2006), Ed. 2. A dictionary of Māori computer related terms: English – Māori, Māori – English (2003), Ed. 1. Book Chapters Māori Genetic Data: Inalienable Rights and Tikanga Sovereignty. Journal of Māori and Indigenous Scholarship. Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiārangi. Navigating the risks and benefits for Māori of AI. AI For Good. 10 Perspectives on artificial intelligence. PSA Chapter 13. AI Regulation from Indigenous Maori / New Zealand Perspective. In AI governance ethics : artificial intelligence with shared values and rules (2024). DOI 10. 58863/20. 500. 12424/4318987 Chapter 10: Māori Data is a taonga. In Huaman, E. & Martin, N. (2023). (Eds) of Indigenous Research Design Transnational Perspectives in Practice. Canadian Scholars. A Māori Cultural Perspective of AI/Machine Sentience. In Goffi... --- Terms of Engagement (Updated January 14, 2025). These Terms of Engagement (the Terms) apply in respect of all work carried out by Taiuru & Associates Limited, except as otherwise agreed in writing. In the Terms “we” and "our" includes Karaitiana Taiuru and/or any employee or contractor of Taiuru & Associates Limited. In the Terms, ‘the Client’ means any person that instructs me to perform work, or any person acting on behalf of and with the authority of a person who is instructing me to perform work. Neither identification nor signature are a requirement to be bound by the Terms. In the Terms, ‘Services’ means those services that are identified by any invoices or other documents or statements describing the services supplied, or to be supplied, by me to the Client. 1. 0 General 1. 1. the Client agrees to purchase the Services referred to on an invoice issued by me. 1. 2. The invoice may contain additional terms and conditions for the supply of relevant Services. In the event of any inconsistency between the Terms and the invoice, the invoice shall prevail. 1. 3. The Client cannot cancel any instruction of Services after the issue of a tax invoice and is bound to pay the price of these Services, unless expressly agreed otherwise in writing. 2. Fees 2. 1. Our current hourly or part hour rate that (GST is applied) can be obtained by request. 2. 2 Community/Academia and Not For Profit services are offered at reduced rates by negotiation.... --- This page has been permanently moved to https://www. taiuru. co. nz/published/ Please update your bookmarks. --- This page has been permanently moved to https://www. taiuru. co. nz/published/ Please update your bookmarks. --- Dr Karaitiana Taiuru regularly composes blog posts on topics relating to Māori and Artificial Intelligence, Data Sovereignty, Safety, Cultural Appropriation and other related topics. Please subscribe to the RSS feed http://www. taiuru. co. nz/rss to keep up to date. Latest Posts Archives --- Loading... --- --- ## Posts 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 forms of technological colonialism that threaten data sovereignty, bias, cultural appropriation, epistemic integrity, and cultural survival. Drawing on Te Tiriti o Waitangi, Māori Data Sovereignty frameworks, and comparative global standards, this article analyses the systemic and cultural risks posed by AI agents to Māori communities. It identifies six categories of risk: data sovereignty, cultural distortion, epistemic harm, governance failure, economic displacement, and ethical desecration. It then proposes a Tiriti-based model for Māori led AI governance grounded in mana motuhake and kaitiakitanga. Introduction AI agents are autonomous digital entities capable of learning, adaptation, and interaction. They are reshaping governance, communication, and knowledge systems. Yet their emergence within colonial states such as Aotearoa New Zealand raises profound issues of power and control. For Māori, the evolution of AI represents not only a technological frontier but also a risk of continuation of colonial encounters mediated through data and code. The Treaty relationship between Māori and the Crown provides a constitutional foundation for Māori governance over digital taonga. However, current AI development largely excludes Māori participation and disregards tikanga Māori and Te Tiriti. This raises the question how AI will impact Māori, and how these impacts can be governed... --- If you can not see the sign up form below, please visit here for the Google Form. Loading... --- Using paid AI subscription models to create AI reo and mātauranga models carries risks of cultural appropriation and ownership issues. Māori have always been quick to adopt and adapt to new technologies, with much of our traditional knowledge only now being recognised for its innovation in many of today's fields of sciences. With the introduction of ChatGPT and the influx of other AI tools, it was natural that Māori grasped the technology and started using it. We have seen this occur with a number of custom LLM's using ChatGPT technologies and with other more custom AI tools. I have tested 4 custom/bespoke mātauranga and reo Māori LLM's created by Māori. Two of them had Māori Data Sovereignty disclaimers and stated to check the output. All had serious hallucinations that could easily confuse individuals. Most used OpenAI ChatGPT option to create their LLM's. This means that all the sacred mātauranga that is used, resides on servers in America, on infrastructure owned by American companies. Therefore, all mātauranga used is subject to the Cloud Act and other laws, private and internal privacy policies of the company which we know some parts state that the company can audit your data and some people have access to it outside of your organisation. One AI that is trained on Waitangi Tribunal reports. This so called expert AI on Waitangi Tribunal Reports, confused Dr Hana O’Regan and Sir Tipene O’Regan with confusing outputs partially identifying each other. Furthermore, it claimed that Ngāi Tahu takiwā extended to... --- 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 using Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become a popular resource, in particular for learning pepeha. A pepeha is far more than a personal introduction, it is an affirmation of whakapapa connecting a person to their mountain, river, hapū, iwi, atua, marae, whenua and ancestors, situating them within the living ecology of te ao Māori. In recent years, digital tools including Artificial Intelligence (AI) have begun offering automated pepeha creation. While such tools appear convenient, their use raises deep epistemic and cultural concerns. Māori identity cannot be produced by probabilistic language models trained on incomplete and colonial datasets. Māori should learn and express their pepeha through communicating with whānau and visits to their marae, touching and smelling their river, mountain, and other things that connect them to being Māori, not through AI. Reciting one’s pepeha is a performative act of connection, not a factual statement to simply be filled in. It is a taonga requiring authenticity and accuracy, not approximation or simulation. Any distortion of pepeha information risks distorting whakapapa relationships and eroding cultural integrity. AI Hallucinations AI systems particularly large language models generate text by predicting probable word sequences based on patterns in their training data.... --- Invitation to join me Wednesday, October 22 · 12 - 1pm while I speak with Open Source practitioner and Tangata Tiriti Rob Elshire about his journey over decades setting up sovereign computers and data storage facilities including his own data centre on his business premises. We will have a Questions and Answers session at the end. Rob will de myth the notion that we need Microsoft and other commercial software to use computers. By the end of this session, you will be more knowledgeable at setting up home and community computers and data centres for a fraction of the cost, while implementing Tino Rangatiratanga! Register here while tickets are still available https://Sovereign-Computers. eventbrite. co. nz --- The Datacom 2025 ANZ Cloud and Infrastructure Report reveals a marked escalation in concerns surrounding data sovereignty among organisations across Australia and New Zealand. These concerns are primarily driven by security, regulatory compliance, and the rapidly intensifying computational demands of artificial intelligence (AI). 61% of respondents in New Zealand and 60% of respondents in Australia are concerned about data sovereignty. There is a clear intent among organisations to localise their data processing to mitigate risks and maintain privacy and security. The higher preference is suggested to be intensified by ongoing global uncertainty. 61% of New Zealand organisations and 68% of Australian organisations show a greater preference for local data processing. The requirements of AI workloads are accelerating the demand for high-performance, low-latency infrastructure. These considerations, along with data protection and regulatory requirements, are intensifying the focus on data sovereignty and local infrastructure investment, impacting platform decisions and workload strategies. This is complicated by perceived infrastructure capacity limitations related to AI demands. 55% of New Zealand respondents and 56% of Australian respondents believe their country’s existing infrastructure lacks the capacity to support the large-scale compute and storage demands that AI will bring. The emphasis on sovereignty and local control extends to how organisations select technology partners: Respondents expressed a desire for technology partners to be subject to the same legislation as their business For the first time since the report began, "locally available staff" was identified as one of the top criteria for technology partners, underscoring the increasing focus on local... --- Recently, RNZ identified more than 30 New Zealanders, including a number of small businesses who have had their Facebook or Instagram accounts suspended after being accused of violating Meta’s community standards. Most concerningly, the suspensions were linked to allegations of sharing child exploitation or sexual content with some of the most serious violations possible on a social media platform. According to New Zealand media, many of the affected parties contend that the allegations are entirely baseless, and that their accounts were wrongly flagged by Meta’s enforcement systems. Human and Economic Implications The wrongful suspension of accounts under such accusations has had profound consequences. Reputational harm and emotional distress are immediate: being flagged for child exploitation content can permanently damage reputations, especially when digital identity and credibility are central to professional or community standing. For small businesses, the consequences are also economic. Social media platforms are marketing hubs, storefronts, and advertising channels. A suspension can mean lost income, severed customer connections, and even the collapse of a business model dependent on digital visibility. These cases further highlight the power imbalance and lack of transparency between global technology platforms and their users. Meta wields unilateral power over enforcement decisions, while appeals are opaque, automated, and often ineffective. For those caught in this system, the process feels arbitrary and unaccountable. Much of the enforcement is driven by automated moderation tools, AI systems and Algorithms designed to detect harmful material at scale. While these tools are necessary, they are also prone to false positives.... --- Google AI search that uses Face Detection Technology miss-identified me and two other Māori men by interchanging images and representing the other men as me. The other Māori men are: Brian Dickey KC of Waikato-Tainui (Ngāti Maahanga), Kingi Snelgar (Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Whakaue, Te Whakatōhea and Ngāi Tahu) and me, Karaitiana Taiuru (Ngāi Tahu, Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngāti Toa) . According to Google, they do not use Facial Recognition Technology, but other AI technology to find patterns as opposed to biometrics as FRT does. When you put a person’s photo into Google Image Search, the core technologies are face detection + feature extraction + visual similarity search, combined with page context. It’s not facial recognition (no identity matching to a database of people), but it can feel close when the image is already widely available online with identifying text. Experiments The first experiment with Google Image Search I typed "Dr Taiuru" and then selecting the AI mode produced startling results. While the standard search produced many photos of myself from my publications and approved media articles, there was a image that Google purported was me in the AI mode search results. Using the 'Search with Google Lens" option with the image of the person in the red box above, an AI generated side box provided the following information: "AI Overview - The image shows Brian Dickey, a prominent New Zealand lawyer. Brian Dickey is recognized as one of Aotearoa New Zealand's most senior litigators and dispute-resolution specialists. He previously served as the... --- Data Sovereignty is not just a Māori issue, but a global issue that New Zealand must address now. Another follow up report from my Māori Data Governance Report 2025, this article analyses corporate requirements for Data Sovereignty and the need to classify on-shore and off-shore data hosting and sovereign AI and Data centres. Corporate needs reflect Māori implementations of AI and Data. A qualitative survey by Pure Storage® with the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) released new insights report "Data Sovereignty: A New Era Navigating Risk in a Dynamic World" on data sovereignty by industry leaders across nine countries including Australia, New Zealand, India, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, the United Kingdom (UK), France, and Germany. The report aligns well to Māori Data Sovereignty practices and the findings of the Māori Data Governance Report 2025. The report revealed unanimous concern about the risks of inaction around data sovereignty: 100% confirmed sovereignty risks, including potential service disruption, which have forced organisations to reconsider where data is located. 92% said geopolitical shifts are increasing sovereignty risks 92% warned inadequate sovereignty planning could lead to reputational damage 85% identified loss of customer trust as the ultimate consequence of inaction 78% are already embracing different data strategies, such as implementing multi service provider strategies; adopting sovereign data centres; and embedding enhanced governance requirements in commercial agreements. “Once data is created and stored, ensuring that it's only ever in one place and only ever within a geographic boundary is actually quite a tricky issue. ” DATA... --- 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 Sovereignty Network’s data principles dated around 2016-2018 (and subsequent modifications by others, including this author), examining their historical significance, contemporary limitations, and inadequacy in addressing current digital challenges facing Māori communities. Through examination of the principles' development, implementation, and theoretical framework, this study argues that while ground breaking in 2016-2018, the Te Mana Raraunga principles now require substantial revision to address emerging technologies, contemporary governance structures, and evolving understandings of Māori Data Sovereignty and Governance. This analysis reveals fundamental gaps in consultation processes, technological scope, and enforcement mechanisms that limit the principles' effectiveness in protecting Māori data rights in the AI and digital age. Introduction Māori data sovereignty has emerged as a critical issue in the contemporary digital landscape, with Te Mana Raraunga principles representing the first systematic attempt to articulate Māori data governance frameworks in Aotearoa New Zealand. This article examines the evolution and limitations of these principles from a contemporary Māori Data Governance perspective, situating the analysis within broader frameworks including the Waitangi Tribunal's WAI 2522 (2023) findings and emerging bespoke Māori data governance models across government, iwi, corporate, and educational sectors. Analysis From a Māori data governance standpoint, Te Mana Raraunga principles,... --- A quick snapshot of the usage of the Māori language in the New Zealand Artificial Intelligence communities, while also celebrating The Māori Language Week for 2025. Translations for Artificial Intelligence There are a number of Māori words that are used to say Artificial Intelligence in the Māori language. The reason there are so many is that there is no central authority that creates new terms and distributes the new terminology. Having multiple Māori words for new terms has been common from at least 1997 when new terms were created by Māori in the industry to be able to converse in Māori language about their work and and academics and teachers to teach courses in immersion classes. Gradually over time certain words become the mainstream words and others simply stop being used. Hinengaro Hiko (Community) Translated as "Hinengaro= Deity of conscious, thoughts and more recently mind, thought, intellect, consciousness, awareness" and "hiko = electrical, power, electronic, electric. " Hinengaro Rorohiko (Māori Language Commission/Te Taura Whiri i te reo Māori) Translated as "Hinengaro= Deity of conscious, thoughts and more recently mind, thought, intellect, consciousness, awareness" and "Rorohiko - Computer (roro=brain; hiko electricity) Hinengaro hori (Ian Cormack) Translated as "Hinengaro= Deity of conscious, thoughts and more recently mind, thought, intellect, consciousness, awareness" and "hori=false". Atamai Iahiko (AUT gifted to the AI Forum) Translated as Translated as "atamai = knowing, quick-witted, ready, intelligent and iahiko = electrical current. " Atamai hangahanga (Pae Kupu) Translated as "atamai - be knowing, intelligent; hangahanga - to build,... --- This report examines the current landscape of Māori data sovereignty and governance in New Zealand. The research, conducted over 12 months, underscores the critical importance of Māori data sovereignty in the age of artificial intelligence (AI) to prevent bias and uphold Māori rights. A key finding reveals a significant disparity between established Māori data governance frameworks and their practical implementation across various sectors, including government, local councils, universities, and even Māori groups themselves, with many hosting data overseas. The report highlights the inconsistency in defining and managing Māori data and the under-resourcing of Māori data initiatives within many government entities. Ultimately, it advocates for an all of government, consistent, standardised, and centralised approach to Māori Data Governance, grounded in Te Tiriti o Waitangi obligations and for other organisations, bespoke tikanga Māori solutions, to ensure Māori are active decision-makers in the digital future. State of the Nation Report FINAL Introduction This report examines the current state of Māori data sovereignty and governance in New Zealand. Research was conducted over a 12-month period from September 2024 to the end of August 2025. The document underscores the critical importance of Māori data sovereignty in the age of artificial intelligence (AI) to prevent bias and uphold Māori rights. The research highlights a significant disparity between established Māori data governance frameworks and their practical implementation across various sectors, including government agencies, local councils, universities, and Māori groups themselves. A key finding is the widespread inconsistency in defining and managing Māori data, coupled with under-resourcing of... --- The AI Forum released their third "BI-ANNUAL SNAPSHOT AI IN ACTION Exploring the Impact of Artificial Intelligence on New Zealand's Productivity". This is the second consecutive time Māori and the first time Pacific Peoples are included. The report recognises that 44% of New Zealanders believe the benefits of AI outweigh the risks, and concerns are higher among Māori (31%) and Pacific Peoples. And To address low trust in AI for Māori, it is essential to close the AI divide. This is driven by broader digital inequities and provides accessible educational resources to counter misinformation. Our Kāhui Māori Atamai Iahiki are developing a strategy that includes an engagement plan to ensure Māori communities have a representative voice in AI. Planned initiatives include a for Māori-by-Māori AI training organisation offering both commercial and free training, as well as AI governance rooted in Te Ao Māori vales. While many Māori communities are fearful of being replaced by AI, the New Zealand trends appear to follow international trends with 55% of respondents saying AI has created new career opportunities Lee Timutimu and I have co founded the Institute of AI Governance that realising the statement above and offering bespoken AI and AI Governance training that is kaupapa Māori based. As in the previous report, industry respondents were asked if their organisations include Māori voices in their AI design and development processes. While not all projects require consultation, where it is needed, it is crucial to engage the right individuals and groups, rather than relying... --- 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 the cultural, historical, and social contexts of Māori in Aotearoa/New Zealand. As a result, Māori communities face heightened vulnerability to biased AI models that perpetuate stereotypes, deepen inequalities, and exacerbate historical marginalisation. AI and machine learning algorithms depend entirely on data for their development. When training data is incomplete, unrepresentative, or culturally biased, AI systems perpetuate harmful stereotypes and make inaccurate predictions. Māori communities face particular risks because their data is often underrepresented or misinterpreted in mainstream datasets. Criminal justice AI systems rely on historical data that reflects existing biases against Māori people, resulting in discriminatory outcomes like over-policing and unjust sentencing. Similarly, predictive models in education and healthcare fail to recognise the specific needs and strengths of Māori individuals, further entrenching systemic inequalities. Māori data sovereignty represents a Te Tiriti framework obligation requiring that Māori communities control, govern, and benefit from data about themselves. This principle aligns with the broader Indigenous data sovereignty movement, which protects Indigenous knowledge systems, privacy, and cultural integrity within digital spaces. When Māori communities govern their own data, they can curate and ensure that AI systems accurately reflect their lived experiences and cultural values, acting as a safeguard against... --- Below is a script I used for a debate about if AI will replace humans in the Aotearoa screen industry at the Big Screen Symposium at Auckland University. It is a well-known fact that most of the world’s AI is dominated from big tech companies that are dominated by white middle class men, and based in the USA, using data trained on misogynist, racist and American centric data that is often stolen, noting the courts recently said it was fair use to do so. AI voices have thick American accents and vocabulary that is not Kiwi. Images and videos are USA centric and often create mocking and sexualised images of Indigenous people. Now, if we consider the recent shift in politics and the attacks on minorities, archives, libraries. Removing names of black and LBGTQ+, war heroes from military buildings, and the desire to not regulate AI to benefit only the technocrats, means that AI content is only able to create USA local content that ignores other local communities and countries. The AI will rewrite historical facts based on the lens of the rich and powerful who own the AI. All of the world’s population, NZ included, are forced to be consumers of American culture when we use the Internet, social media and AI. We have no choice. In more recent months, China have introduced several AI tools with trained on the same data as the other American AI, but filled with Chinese propaganda against urgars people, Tiananmen square didn’t have... --- Māori communities such as hapū, marae, taurahere, urban Māori and Māori organisation have always enacted sovereignty over their taonga, and in the digital age it has been no different. This podcast discusses the technical and grass roots level of Māori sovereignty that Māori refer to as "Tino Rangatiratanga" and "Mana Motuhake". Terms enshrined in our post colonial history that have recently been ignored in favour of the term "mana". Mana literally means respect and has been used by academia and the Crown as a word for sovereignty, despite it not being a term used in Te Tiriti. I interview the following technical and Māori community leaders about Māori Data Sovereignty for marae, hapū and other non-Iwi collectives as one of a number in a series of conversations: Craig Hampson - TEAM IM NZ director whose company is a New Zealand hyperscale sovereign cloud service, owned and operated by TEAM IM, with Ngāti Toa as a shareholder. Lee Timutimu (Ngāti Awa, Ngai Te Rangi, Tūhoe, Ngāti Poro) a 2024 Kiwibank New Zealander of the Year Semi-Finalist, which recognised his work as an advocate and leader in the Māori digitech. community. Amber Craig ( Kahungunu, Rangitāne, Muaūpoko, Ngai Tara) a pioneering Māori technologist, strategist and kaupapa Māori innovator. Key themes from this discussion were: Rapid technological advancement over the past decade requires deeper understanding from Māori communities Māori sovereignty represents a significant commercial consideration that corporates and government continue to overlook The Cloud Act poses minimal real concerns for Māori data sovereignty... --- Aukaha News story of a Māori women Ellen Tamati was woken my her mokopuna today to hear that her image of her face and moko kauae has been used in racist billboards advertising anti Māori wards. A campaign by Hobson's Pledge. The media clip of the woman is here https://www. facebook. com/share/v/19LKSEc1f8/ Hours later, there was a public statement from Hobson’s Pledge: We are aware of a video circulating online involving one of our Māori Wards campaign billboards, which features a stock image of a woman who has expressed distress at seeing her photo used. The image was legally purchased through a reputable stock photography provider, and all rights to use it in public-facing materials were secured. However, upon seeing the video and understanding the impact on this individual, we have asked the billboard company to remove the advertisement immediately. While the intent of the campaign was to promote an important conversation about democratic fairness and equal voting rights for all New Zealanders, we are saddened to see that this billboard has caused personal upset. That was never our intention. We believe in having respectful and constructive conversations about Māori Wards. We hold the view that race-based electoral divisions are unnecessary and undermine equal suffrage, particularly when many Māori candidates are already successfully elected through general seats at both the local and national level. We will be reaching out privately to the individual featured to ensure she is okay and to let her know her image is publicly available on... --- The basics of AI governance stakeholder interactions were ignored by Auckland Transport (AT) with the roll out of their Car Licence Plate Recognition system that automatically issues fines for all cars that are parked in a designated disabled car park, ignoring disabled people's legal car permits, according to a RNZ report. The Auckland City Council estimate that there are 42,948 Auckland residents with a disabled car permit and overall in New Zealand there are over 170,000 permit holders. So at least 42,948 Auckland residents permit holders are at risk of discrimination and being fined for no reason, leaving many with the task to write letters and take other actions to resolve the matter. One permit holder has faced repeated fines from Auckland Transport (AT) due to a flaw in their new parking enforcement system, which fails to recognise mobility permits. The issue is widespread, with many other permit holders experiencing similar problems. Other issues include that the permits are registered to an individual and not a vehicle. Some reasons include that people in wheels can not drive, disabled children, and the fact that many disabled people can not drive and rely on carers and taxi services etc. CCS Disability Action, which issues mobility permits, expressed concern that AT’s automatic number plate recognition system was launched without consultation, causing significant frustration for users. AT acknowledged the issue and is working on solutions, including a digital permit system through the AT Park app, though challenges remain. The human and social impacts on... --- This article considers why building sovereign AI capability within New Zealand is not just a technological imperative, it is a strategic necessity. Countries like Australia, Germany, Denmark and the EU are already planning and implementing Sovereign AI, while New Zealand remains a customer and not an AI leader. Many overseas AI models are controlled by foreign laws and trained on data we can’t fully see or understand. That makes it harder for New Zealanders and Māori to be sure those systems meet our privacy rules, legal standards, and expectations around fairness and ethics. Sovereign AI refers to artificial intelligence systems that are developed, controlled, and operated by a nation or organisation using its own infrastructure, data, and workforce. This approach emphasises technological self-reliance, national security and alignment with local values and regulations. Māori or Indigenous Sovereign AI, in addition to standard AI sovereignty is a new way of preserving and transforming our ancestral intelligence using mātauranga Māori, tikanga, rangatiratanga, whakapapa, mana motuhake, tapu and noa, tribal lore and cultural protocols to build, create and maintain our digital lands. Background Generative AI has impacted every single nation, industry, and business in the world. The market is expected to reach almost $70 billion USD by the end of 2025, and $442 billion USD only six years later. The benefits of generative AI are no secret, more opportunities for innovation, efficiency, and creativity, to name a few. However, there’s a concern that, because AI is universal, the ability for nations to solve their... --- Sovereign AI is about keeping control over our future. Tino rangatiratanga mō tātou, ā, mō ngā uri ā muri ake nei The ability to create and control our destiny for generations to come. These principles are a localised version of the international Indigenous AI Sovereign principles. Pou 1. Data sovereignty and Data Governance: Our data, our protocols. Control over data creation, access, and use. Our AI must be built upon tikanga and mātauranga using intergenerational consent and values, not just western ethics. Pou 2. Control over infrastructure and code: If we don’t own it, we don’t control it. From code and algorithms to servers and models, infrastructure and models must be built and operated under rangatiratanga. Pou 3. Skilled workforces: Rather than relying on external agencies, governments and external countries, Māori need to be able to leverage their own skilled workforce to deploy AI agents and models, and innovate new solutions. This often means upskilling professionals with AI and machine learning (ML) education or encouraging students to pursue careers in the industry. Pou 4. Economic Reinvestment: Redirecting digital value to strengthen the Māori economy and uplift more Māori into well paying tech jobs. Pou 5. Investment in innovation: Iwi, hapū, marae and Māori organisations need to be committed to investing in their own AI initiatives. Building sovereign AI means supporting local talent to fund state of the art research tailored to unique challenges and intergenerational wealth and knowledge preservation. --- Below is a Gen AI for Ethical use of Mātauranga template statement that can be copied and pasted for use in any educational facility, workplace or other organisation. Please be respectful of the Creative Commons Attribution 4. 0 International License associated with this and acknowledge accordingly. Māori data sovereignty and AI governance Data is the source for all Artificial Intelligence and machine learning. XXXX (replace XXXX with your organisation name) recognises the need for Data Ontology and labels for Māori Data. XXXX (replace XXXX with your organisation name) recognises Māori Data is a Taonga and subject to Māori Data Governance as described by the Waitangi Tribunal in its WAI 2522 Report on the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) 2023 report: Māori Data is: “Digital or digitisable information or knowledge that is about or from Māori people, language, culture, resources, or environments”. Māori Data Governance is: “The principles, structures, accountability mechanisms, legal instruments, and policies through which Māori exercise control over Māori data”. Internally, any AI associated with translating Te Reo Māori or generated multimedia must have the result confirmed by an staff member approved by our ethics committee Māori representative. Any mātauranga Māori that is used to train a Generative AI (te reo Māori, images, pūrākau, etc) is done with permission from the traditional knowledge holder/author. We do not use prompts or other ontology to generate mātauranga Māori. Knowledge that is considered tapu in te ao Māori is never used with a Generative AI. Tapu data includes... --- This YouTube video clip is a perfect example of why AI will not replace our talented people in the screen industry. It was reported in RNZ and in the Spin Off. The Chat GPT AI generated video is just over 10 minutes long and is supposed to be about about keeping your phone silent in the cinema's. Unfortunately, it was full of cultural appropriation, conspiracy theories, racial stereotypes, miss pronunciations of the Māori language and overall misinformation among many other inappropriate statements and imagery. The creator according to RNZ was an American person who used a few Google searches to learn about Aotearoa New Zealand. Lessons when using AI to create content: 1. Use local people to create content 2. Fact check with a human who has expert knowledge on the content 3. Peer review AI generated content 4. Stakeholder engagement is essential in the whole AI life cycle and prior to publishing. --- I have over the years shared some mātauranga Māori and compared it to AI, I am hoping to revive our pre traditional practices of using pepeha, moemoea, waiata, oriori and other oral preservation and learning resources to assist Māori to understand AI is a powerful tool. Despite Māori being at the crossroads of new digital colonisation or digital empowerment with AI, there has only been one haka that I am aware of about AI. The following use publicly available mātauranga Māori and are written in English and Maori, in a hope to encourage others to create more resources in both reo Māori me reo Pākehā. These are a mixture of Haiku and poems below. Authors will be credited for contributing. Reo Māori Ai versus Artificial Intelligence AI Cold mind, wires awake not like flesh that dreams and joins, life sparks where we touch. ----------------------------------- Tipuna & Code Whakapapa hums through wires, unseen but present Tipuna watch code. ----------------------------------- Decolonising AI Colonial code cannot read our tikanga we rewrite the script. ----------------------------------- He Kōrero mō te AI, mō te ai I te rangi tūhāhā, ka whiti te rama, Ko te mārama hangarau ka tiaho ki te ao. He mīharo, he tipua, ko te āhua o te AI, He rorohiko e ako ana, e matapae ana i te wā kei mua. Engari kei raro i te pō, ka kōrero ngā tīpuna, E kore e taea e te mīhini te manaaki i te ira tangata. Ko te ai, he taonga tuku iho, he... --- For many years, I have written about the risks that Māori and other minority communities are confronted with, from emerging digital technologies. In particular: deepfakes, cultural appropriation (such as the misuse of moko), voice cloning, and biased facial recognition systems. These technologies raise significant concerns, including identity theft, fake pornography, digital impersonation, and the broader misuse of Māori identity and data. We continue to see Māori with facial moko have their images stolen and sold as artworks and with fake adverts using people in videos and images. Perhaps the most famous cases include Tame Iti and Oriini Kaipara. Among other issues are moko being copied off photos and used to train AI image generators. Recently, the Privacy Commission released findings from the Foodstuffs Facial Recognition Technology trial. They concluded that the trial complied with the Privacy Act and that live facial recognition was effective in reducing repeat offending during the period under review. The Minister of Justice, Hon. Paul Goldsmith, was quick to endorse the findings, stating: “I expect our Ministerial Advisory Group will continue to look at this technology as an option to be used more widely and engage with the sector on it. I’ll be encouraging the MAG to take this report into serious consideration. New Tools to Fight Retail Crime Welcomed It is unfortunate that wider Māori perspectives were largely absent. There was a missed opportunity by the Privacy Commission to engage meaningfully with Māori communities, AI experts, and other government agencies already working with Māori, to... --- Yesterday the New Zealand Government released its AI Strategy and advise to small businesses. The Strategy aligns with OECD AI Principles and the Government says it will continue to work with international partners on global rules to support the responsible use and development of AI. The strategy is primarily focused on productivity and not human rights and ethics, with the Government stating: "AI could add $76 billion to our GDP by 2038, but we’re falling behind other small, advanced economies on AI-readiness and many businesses are still not planning for the technology. The Government’s role in AI is to reduce barriers to adoption, provide clear regulatory guidance, and promote responsible AI adoption. " A Policy advisor at the PSA Union stated: I was very disappointed to see that the strategy is not to provide any specific regulatory guardrails to prevent harms to communities or workers and not to support or encourage growth of AI skills and industry here in NZ. I note the guide for business includes no mention of impacts on or risks to workers and jobs. Māori Rights and Considerations Despite the AI Strategy not containing a specific Te Tiriti, Māori Data Governance and protection for Māori clauses, the OECD AI Values-based Principles that the AI Strategy is based upon does guide New Zealand Government to recognise Te Tiriti and other legal instruments that recognise Māori. Within the strategy are also examples of Māori businesses that cover a range of cultural issues that AI is being used to... --- The recent announcement by the government that the Census will cease in 2028 has been met with various reactions. Māori statisticians and academics with memberships and affiliations to Te Mana Raraunga and Iwi Leaders Data Group in particular are warning of issues for Māori and Iwi. As a Māori technologist/governor with Data and AI, I argue, that if we take a fresh look at this from a Te Ao Māori and Te Tiriti lens, then the cancellation of the census creates a myriad of new opportunities for all of Māori which, will then benefit for all of New Zealand. Background Considering the census is not based on tikanga and is another colonial tool that has been used, for and against Māori wellbeing. Cancelling the census is a new opportunity to reset this dilemma and work towards a new solution that will benefit all New Zealanders. Noting that the current regime has not worked in the past 174 years and in particular the past decade when we have had the status of Māori Data Sovereignty realised and the past 4 years a mana Ōrite agreements with Iwi and StatsNZ and DIA costing hundreds of thousands of dollars, then a change of strategy could be beneficial to everyone. Ka Pu te Ruha – Ka Hao te Rangatahi When the old net is cast aside, the new net goes fishing. The 2018 census had the poorest inputs in history that resulted in the need to use other data from government. The poor uptake... --- According to their media release, the Writer's Toolbox, a New Zealand and Australian education company who provide an educational writing programme powered by patented AI, designed to help students master writing, is having a serious impact on Māori students literacy achievements. After using Writer’s Toolbox , Thornton School in the Bay of Plenty found that incomplete sentence usage had decreased for all year levels, with Māori decreasing the most: from 47% to just 4%. While all year levels had an excellent decrease in struggling writers, notably Māori students dropped from 50% to 0. It highlights the need for innovative interventions like these to achieve cultural and educational equity for Māori students, with the impact reaching far beyond the classroom. Looking closer at the statistics of the primary school, according to Data. govt. nz there are 112 students. 29 students who identify as Māori, equating to about 25. 89% of the student enrolments being Māori. The media release mentions other schools including: At Tawhiti School in Taranaki, boys using the AI writing programme demonstrated a significant reduction in incomplete sentences across all years, falling from 21 per cent in 2023 to 10 per cent in 2024. The proportion of boys classified as struggling writers decreased by 74 per cent during the same period. Tawhiti School have 313 students, of which 151 are Māori, or approximately 48. 24% of the student enrolments. Tamatea Intermediate have 430 students, of which 197 are Māori, approximately 45. 81% of the student enrolments. Having spent several... --- Toitū te Tiriti Lawyer, Tania Waikato who has become prominent online with sharing legal advise, tutorials about how to write submissions against the racist Regulatory Standards Bill here in New Zealand has been banned from Facebook. Her content was civil, polite and factual. It only served to enlighten people of the impacts of the bill should it be passed. On the surface, I would say it was a co ordinated strategy of a collective all making continued complaints against her materials. Facebook would have taken it down until it is properly assessed. It does strongly appears as though the right wing anti Māori groups that have publicly denounced Te Tiriti and make false claims that Māori have special rights, have seen the truth and en mass of Māori and non Māori taking a stand against yet another racist piece of legislation, are afraid. This is a new form of political interference and cyber activism via social media by anti Māori groups. It has always been a tool to use, but I don't believe it has been used to politically silence minority groups in the past. Again, this raises the need for Aotearoa to have a conversation about digital sovereignty. Tina Ngata has a TikTok video here. https://www. tiktok. com/@kokatee/video/7514077588424297746? _r=1&_t=ZS-8x4YdoeM2Nc --- We successfully ran another free over subscribed (150 people) webinar, this month. The topic was on Māori and IP rights and Māori language with Artificial Intelligence. The recording is available at https://bit. ly/IPandReo. Next month, I will be discuss how Te Tiriti, He Whakaputanga and other legal instruments recognise Māori rights in relation to AI, including Māori Data Sovereignty. This seminar is highly recommended for all individuals involved in using or developing AI in Aotearoa New Zealand. Free tickets are available here. --- 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 about the Honourable Rawiri Waititi's moko kanohi (traditional tattoo that covers the face, while a moko kauae is on the chin only of women). Mr Peters in his speech made the statement that Mr Waititi had "scribbles on his face", in reference to his moko. Mr Peters was forced to apologise, in which he did. This has seen an online protest in various social media of men, women and groups of people wearing facial moko protesting against the comments made by Mr Peters. There are also several unique photos of Mr Peters with scribble and other colonial images on his face. The common posts include #scribble, #barcode, #wini, #kupapa, and a number of statements directed at Mr Peters about how proud they are of their moko/scribble and a number of derogatory statements. The power and accessibility of the Internet and World Wide Web has seen traditional Māori protests taken from the street to the web, reaching into the homes and workplaces of everyone, with a ease. This is particularly important as mainstream media often do not report on Māori issues and the Māori media are small and under resourced. Arguably the first times that we saw Māori protest online was in 2001 to 2002 where Māori lobbied in large numbers for the creation of the . maori. nz domain... --- One. nz released their AI Trust Report New Zealanders’ attitudes towards AI in 2025 today. Interestingly, it aligns to the research done by the AI Forum, PSA, InternetNZ, DataCom and many other New Zealand initiated research on AI. While One. nz report didn't mention Māori or Pacifika, it did report on specific concerns about women and elderly, that mirror that of Māori communities from other research. Key findings from the One NZ AI Trust Report include: AI use is now widespread: 77% of New Zealanders have interacted with AI-powered services in the past year Trust is fragile: 62% say they would stop using a company if they had concerns about its AI use Top concerns: Misuse of personal data (67%), job losses (65%), and unfair decision-making (62%) Essential safeguards: 87% believe strong data privacy protections are “important or essential” Recognised benefits: Kiwis see value in AI for boosting productivity (43%), cybersecurity (42%), and innovation (41%) Industry differences: Government, banking, and healthcare face greater challenges in building public confidence in their AI practices Size matters: Kiwis are much more likely to trust small businesses and large NZ businesses to use AI ethically and responsibly, compared to multinational companies Trust: Businesses that fail to earn trust will fail to realise AI’s full potential Sustainability concerns: While some see AI’s potential for environmental gains, 48% worry about energy consumption and greenwashing Success: Communication, training and transparency were key. Governance: A need to implement sector-appropriate AI governance frameworks, Humans: We need to ensure meaningful... --- The latest research by the Privacy Commission “Research on Privacy Concerns and Use of Personal Information March 2025” has a significant focus on Māori views which is welcomed. There is a concentration on Facial Recognition Technologies (FRT) reinforcing well established facts. The limited AI questions could have been more extensive, and should have included Algorithms and bias, with the same focus on Māori as the rest of the report. But overall, the report fairly reflects what other research states. AI Feedback Public concern about privacy remains high, with particular unease around children’s online safety, social media data use, and AI decision-making. A slight decline in reported general concern may reflect question changes rather than real shifts. Across specific privacy issues, concern remains high, especially regarding children's online privacy (67%), social media companies managing personal data (63%), and government or business use of AI to make decisions (62%). 83% of respondents concerned (27% very concerned), about government agencies or businesses using artificial intelligence to make decisions about them, using their personal information. 4% were not concerned at all. Māori were more likely to be concerned. Facial Recognition Technologies Concern about facial recognition technology declined, though Māori consistently showed higher concern—particularly over potential bias (57% Māori vs 48% All), use in law enforcement (52% Māori vs 41% All, and retail settings (49% Māori vs 41% All). Support was similar among Māori and the general population with around two-thirds supporting surveillance technology when used for crime prevention or security-related purposes use for reducing... --- The global study titled "Trust, attitudes and use of Artificial Intelligence: A global study 2025" reveals that while a significant portion of New Zealanders regularly use AI, their trust in the technology is notably low. Concerns about risks associated with AI are prevalent, indicating a need for improved regulation and assurance. I have taken the relevant key findings for New Zealand out of the complex report and summarised them below. Overall, this reflects what many of already knew. New Zealander’s do not trust AI and big tech companies and we want AI to be regulated, workplaces lack AI policies and governance, most New Zealanders don’t believe AI benefits outweigh the risks. These findings are largely reflective across New Zealand employers and employees, Pasifika and Māori communities apart from the strong desire to learn and utilise AI. Low acceptance and trust in AI New Zealand is among the lowest-ranked countries in terms of public acceptance of AI within advanced economies, comparable to Australia and the Netherlands. Furthermore, trust in AI systems in New Zealand, trust (34%) and acceptance (15%) of AI are notably low, with acceptance ranking as the ninth lowest among other countries. The lack of trust is a major reason to not use AI. Only 31% of New Zealanders agree that the benefits of AI outweigh the risks. Globally, New Zealand ranks as the fifth lowest country for regular use of AI systems. Regulatory concerns New Zealand is rated lowest for AI regulation adequacy, with 58% saying current laws... --- 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 and have been fully booked out in the previous two months. If you try to register and can't please use my contact form and let me know your iwi and I will send you a meeting invite and link on the day. I will be speaking of the dangers of AI with mātauranga Māori and how artists and reo speakers can mitigate some of these risks. We will discuss Māori language revitalisation and normalisation and how we can best adapt the technologies before international corporations make it too late for us to retrieve any hope of Māori led AI te reo revitalisation projects. The previous webinars on my YouTube Channel and can be accessed here https://bit. ly/KTaiuru-AI-Impacts --- 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 and each response. My feeling at the time, this was done as it was against our cultural norms to send a written form of communication when the alternatives were to ring or to physically see the person face to face to correspond your message. With the recent introduction of online AI tools such as ChatGPT, it is not unusual for Māori to say "Kia ora" to the AI, and or thank the AI for the outputs by saying thigs such as 'ngā mihi'. There are also multiple reports of people forming friendships and others are falling in love with and having a romantic relationship with an AI. From a Māori culture perspective, as I have written many other times, AI could be considered to have a mauri, could be considered for legal personhood in New Zealand, does use our taonga - Māori Data and produces a taonga with Māori Data as an output. In terms of greeting an AI, it is another new cultural norm that Māori either intentionally or through natural attrition stop greeting and other salutations to AI. If you write "Kia ora" and "ngā mihi nui" the next time you are using... --- 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 take up the AI challenge as individuals, hapū, marae iwi and businesses to carve out new opportunities for today, while preparing future generations, by being AI leaders and AI adapters as presently there are no clear pathways, provided by education providers, businesses and government. It was good to have Ngāi Tahu whanuka Rebekah Bowling discuss her PhD research on the risks of Facial Recognition Technologies on Māori. Having her research published at this stage shows the growing concerns by Māori and employee's about this invasive technology. Other expert contributors are: Joy Liddicoat Dr Amanda Turnbull James Mclaurin Joshua Fairfield Dr Nathan Cooper Melissa Oliver David Glover Melissa Donnelly The book launch was at Parliament last week. It was great to see a mixture of political neutral experts from the AI field also present and debate topics that many of us are concerned and think about. Key themes from the debate and the book for me were awareness about the need for regulation, impacts of jobs, ensuring human beings are in the loop of AI developments and deployments, big tech companies and the tax they pay, privacy of data and algorithms and AI Sovereignty. --- 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 Facial Recognition Technology (FRT), and international world super powers are ignoring human rights with autonomous drones that use facial recognition in the military to kill people in war zones such as Ukraine. Colonial settlers once collected our ancestors heads, now governments and businesses want your face. This free resource of Facial Recognition Technology (FRT) videos, podcasts, and articles for our whānau Māori and others to learn about the issues and bias with Facial Recognition Technologies (FRT). The videos can be watched by yourself or in communities. The more educated we all are, the more we can advocate for change. As Māori, we know there are risks with the implementation of Facial Recognition Technologies (FRT). FoodStuffs NZ implemented their FRT trial roll out after and during consultation with the Privacy Commission, but the details still remain secret. The first public victim of Foodstuffs FRT trial was a Māori woman, who I will not name in this post. This innocent Māori mother was accosted by large men at the supermarket in Rotorua as the FRT system miss identified her brown face, and the men didn't believe her that their image was not her, despite being showed multiple... --- 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 with tino rangatiratanga, mātauranga Māori, whakapapa, and cultural appropriation. Whakapapa Exploitation AI systems capture facial features and visual markers tied to whakapapa. When uploaded to foreign platforms, this can result in loss of control, breach of tapu, and unconsented use. AI models using personal images can capture features linked to whakapapa—such as moko, facial structures, or iwi/hapū aesthetics. When this data is uploaded to foreign or corporate AI platforms, it risks being extracted, stored offshore, and used without context or consent. Digitising whakapapa: Whakapapa as Data: Treating identity data as a digital commodity undermines the sacredness of whakapapa and our responsibility as kaitiaki of that information. Suggested protective action: Ensure any engagement with image-based AI includes protections for whakapapa and adheres to Māori Data Sovereignty principles. Mātauranga Māori Misappropriation Taonga such as moko kauae, kākahu and pounamu are being stylised as digital accessories, stripping cultural meaning and breaching tikanga. Eurocentric AI models often misrepresent Māori features, reinforcing digital erasure and stereotypes. Stylisation of taonga: AI-generated action figures might incorporate taonga like moko, kākahu, tiki, or pounamu as mere aesthetic choices removing their cultural, spiritual, and whakapapa significance. Loss of control over imagery: Once generated, these... --- 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 Māori section. Some key highlights to note include that: The top five AI applications are Administration, Marketing, Software Development, Project Management, and Design, with generative AI tools like Claude, ChatGPT, and Microsoft CoPilot leading adoption. Note: This reflects later stats in the report that 72% of companies use pre-existing AI solutions, while only 13% use custom-built solutions pointing to the cost and speed advantages of leveraging the existing AI apps and platforms. Productivity boost 93% of respondents say AI has made workers more efficient. AI is a cost saver 56% reported AI having a positive financial impact (up from 50%), with 71% acknowledging savings on operational costs due to harnessing AI. Increased uptake in AI 82% of respondents reported some level of AI use in their organisation, a 15 percentage point increase from the first survey. Minimal job displacements 7% reporting AI replacing workers, however there is evidence that it is impacting the number of new hires. Training 73% of respondents reported having received AI training in their organisation suggesting employers are taking seriously the need to upskill the workforce to make the most of AI tools and platforms. Te Ao Māori The Artificial... --- 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. New Zealand is a current member of the OECD as are more than 39 other countries with others awaiting approval to join. AI Principles from the OECD Values-based principles Inclusive growth, sustainable development and well-being Human rights and democratic values, including fairness and privacy Transparency and explainability Robustness, security and safety icon Accountability Recommendations for policy makers Investing in AI research and development Fostering an inclusive AI-enabling ecosystem icon Shaping an enabling interoperable governance and policy environment for AI Building human capacity and preparing for labour market transition icon International co-operation for trustworthy AI While it is important to adapt international principles and localise them to recognise sovereignty and regional identity, here in Aotearoa New Zealand, we have unique considerations when it comes to writing AI Principles: in particular, responsible companies will include a commitment to Te Tiriti o Waitangi, which recognises Māori Data Sovereignty as found in the Waitangi Tribunal’s WAI 2522 Report on the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) 2023 report). Te Tiriti has also been recignised in the latest AI guidance for government in the Public Sector AI Framework . It is vital that any AI developer include and... --- 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 diverse ways, including its use by the Russian-backed Pravda group to disseminate news and potentially, disinformation, to New Zealand audiences. The New Zealand site URL is https://new-zealand. news-pravda. com/ while the language option on the site takes you to the te reo Māori version https://maori. news-pravda. com/. The web site is navigated in the same manner as a good Māori/English bilingual web site with an option to switch between Māori and English. The pro-Russia content aggregation network, called Pravda, that publishes pro-Kremlin content simply relies on an automated process to create articles and translate them into other language's. At the time of writing, American Sunlight Project report on disinformation stated there were 108 country web sites and their official languages used, and counting. While the broader topic of Russian disinformation is well-covered elsewhere, this article centres on the Māori perspective regarding the use of te reo Māori within a Russian based and fed, international disinformation network. AI such as ChatGPT, Bard, CoPilot, Deep Seek and all the others can understand and produce test that is translated into and from Māori language and English. These AI tools are then used to translate the articles on the... --- 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 Māori. The online Zoom webinars will be on the first first Thursday of each month, from 1-2pm, under the title "Artificial Intelligence Impacts and Preparation for Māori", and are bookable at the Eventbrite page or by selecting courses below. Each webinar is free to register for and will include a 15 minute wānanga section for questions and answers.       The key theme of each webinar is based upon the key theme from my 2023 Gibbons Lecture at the University of Auckland Māori are at a crossroads with AI. We can ignore it and go down that road which will ensure Māori remain in status quo with inequities, discrimination and colonialism, or we can turn right for empowerment, decolonisation and a brighter future.   The current 2025 schedule is: All webinars are recorded and available at https://bit. ly/KTaiuru-AI-Impacts July 03 - Artificial Intelligence Impacts and Preparation for Māori - Te Tiriti I will discuss how Te Tiriti, He Whakaputanga and other legal instruments recognise Māori rights in relation to AI, including Māori Data Sovereignty. This seminar is highly recommended for all individuals involved in using or developing AI in Aotearoa New Zealand. August 07... --- 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 a a section or a separate Māori Data Disclaimer. AI disclaimers are are written, easy to find and understand, and publicly published on your web site, emails, and products to inform your customers and audience when you use AI technology with the creation of images, audio, text and any other AI generated output. The intention is to build trust with your audience and customers so they know when they are dealing with a human being or an AI. More recently, AI disclaimers also ensure compliance with ethical standards and emerging regulations such as the EU Act. AI principles are different than disclaimers as they are guidelines that help ensure AI systems are trustworthy, safe, and respectful of human rights. AI principles can help guide the development and use of AI. AI Principles are often only used internally to guide the AI life cycle for a company. It is good practice to publish your AI principles to build current and potential customer and public trust. My next post will discuss these from an Aotearoa New Zealand perspective and use real life examples. Do we really need an AI Disclaimer? As AI matures and progresses, humans are... --- 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 in an investigation. Despite this, in New Zealand there is no legislation to manage Facial Recognition Technology (FRT) and CCTV. The Privacy Commission have FRT guidelines and in December 2024 begun its public consultation on Biometrics. According to NewsRoom, the Ministry of Justice in 2024, reviewed the Privacy Act searching for barriers to the deployment of Facial Recognition Technology and other emerging technologies to prevent retail crime. This rushed review occurred internally within the public sector. Of concern is that the Minister has declined to release the results of the review, under the Official Information Act, saying it was still under active consideration. Excluded from the consultation process were many important and relevant groups that will be impacted by Facial Recognition Technologies, including privacy experts, ethnic communities and Māori such as the AI Forum's Kāhui Māori. I have already cover these issues in older posts including: Facial Recognition trial report obfuscates risks to Māori Inconsistencies with Facial Recognition Trial First Māori woman victim in facial recognition trial in a month The is a significant concern, as we have recent research and instances of Māori discrimination with Facial Recognition Technology (FRT) in New Zealand and... --- 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 and advance our country on a global scale. But at the same time, it will be making the digital divide (and more recent the New Zealand government report on the digital divide) further and less accessible than ever before, impacting some of societies most vulnerable people, Māori, low socio economic groups and rural communities who will no longer be able to use their older phones, some overseas phones and other devices that may be impacted, including, but not limited to: smart watches/wearables, Vehicle/fleet tracking devices, smart meters, e-book readers, security systems, farm equipment etc. Daniel Wilson has created a resource at https://3gclosure. nz/ including an incomplete list of 3G devices that may be affected. It is estimated that the 3G shutdown could impact 200,000 to 300,000 3G phones and other devices. “We can see up to 200,000 to 300,000 3G phones and tablets out there in use. But if you ask people on the street, hardly anyone knows about it. There are lots of elderly people who might not be aware of the consequences. ” NZ Herald Turning off a cell phone network is common practice around the world with Australia controversially shutting down their... --- The New Zealand Government this week this week (January 29, 2025) released its first non binding AI Framework for the public sector with ethics, human and Indigenous Peoples considerations. View the Public Service AI Framework or downloadable pdf here). The Aotearoa New Zealand government Cabinet has agreed to a light-touch, proportionate and risk-based approach to AI regulation. They’ve recognised the NZ policy context already provides some guardrails and have agreed that further regulatory intervention should: only be considered to unlock innovation or address acute risks use existing mechanisms in preference to developing a standalone AI Act. I have discussed this in another post how a standalone AI act would directly discriminate against the Indigenous Peoples - Māori, and likely others minority communities in Aotearoa New Zealand and I share the views of the government that it would likely hinder AI developments. According to the AI Framework background information, several other frameworks guided the creation of this AI Framework, including the international OECD AI principles that the Aotearoa New Zealand government Cabinet agreed in June 2024 to promote as a key direction to approach to responsible AI. It was positive to read that the Aotearoa New Zealand Algorithm Charter was another framework that was used for guidance, but does not appear to be incorporated in any way. The Algorithm Charter has been widely criticised. Dr Andrew Chen of the Koi Tū: The Centre for Informed Futures raises a number of issues including “The Charter doesn’t really engage with Māori, including in... --- 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 the USA and others warning that your data is not safe. But the biggest wake up call for the western world was that America no longer have the international monopoly on the AI market. Nvidia - the company behind the high-tech chips that dominate many AI investments, that had seen its share price surge in the last two years due to growing demand - was the hardest hit on Monday. Its share price dropped by roughly 17% on Monday, wiping roughly $600bn off its market value. Is DeepSeek better for Māori data? Considering Māori, the Indigenous Peoples of New Zealand make up about 20% country's population and share the same concerns as other Indigenous Peoples in the world, it is important to consider how this impacts Māori. Upon extensive testing of Māori knowledge and Māori language on both DeepSeek and ChatGPT, the output data is the same. DeepSeek does analyse and explain the outputs in more detail than ChatGPT, but it is obvious to me at this stage that they are using the same Māori data sets. Māori should keep abreast of developments with DeepSeek due to its processing power which makes data outputs faster.... --- 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. “If you were doing your opex budgets at the start of September 2024, when the exchange rate was 0. 6345, now on January 7 at 0. 5650, you will need to add another 13. 5 per cent to the cost of every US dollar-based SaaS, PaaS or IaaS you have. ” Large businesses will have CIO's and other staff that will have forecast these issues and will have contingency in place. But for smaller organisations such as SME's, NFP's, iwi, hapū and marae these costs could be financially crippling. There are a number of cloud providers in New Zealand including infrastructure as a service (IaaS), platform as a service (PaaS), software as a service (SaaS with open source and proprietary), and serverless computing all of which have their various benefits and cons. The article highlights the need for better planning of cloud solutions and considerations of data repatriation back to New Zealand or a mixture while also applying Māori Data Governance practices. Again, this is another opportunity for Iwi and Māori to invest in cloud infrastructure and data centres as partners or as sole owners as Ngāti Toa have already done. Many Iwi are still... --- Leaking of sensitive corporate and government data via Generative AI such as ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, Claude, and Perplexity is an ongoing risk with many New Zealand companies and the New Zealand government who lack Artificial Intelligence (AI) skills such as AI governance and AI Security. All data that is inputted into an AI models will be retained and the AI will use that inputted data to learn from. This is called AI memorisation, that is, the models can generate verbatim copies of certain parts of their training data. DataCom 2024 AI attitudes in New Zealand showed 67% of companies stated security as a key concern. Yet, most companies have a lack of AI training as does most New Zealand government groups in this area. Recent international research From Payrolls to Patents: The Spectrum of Data Leaked into GenAI (2024) shows some alarming rates of Data Leakage: 63. 8% of ChatGPT users used the free version with 53. 5% of sensitive prompts entered into it 5. 64% was sensitive code like Access Keys and proprietary source code 8. 5% included sensitive data which was made up of the following: 45. 77% was sensitive data about customers, including billing details, customer reports, and customer authentication. 26. 83% of that was Employee data including payroll and employment records 14. 88% was legal and finance data such as Mergers and Acquisitions, Investment Portfolios and Pipeline Data. 6. 88% was security policies. The Cisco 2024 Data Privacy Benchmark Study included organizations concerns with generative Artificial... --- Misleading journalism about the Treaty Principals Bill web site being attacked could lead to similar actions of accusations of interference in the election when Donald Trump lost his second campaign. This lead to his supporters defending their views of political interference which resulted in civil unrest. RNZ, while usually a reputable and balanced New Zealand media outlet, ran this false information and scaremongering story 'Record treaty submissions could be result of nefarious activity - tech expert' about the web site crash for the Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi Bill. This article has attracted multiple IT experts to question the validity of the article. The story is unbalanced and lacks facts, spoke to IT people who while maybe experts in some areas of IT, certainly were not experts in cyber security, offered their 'personal opinions' which were then reported as (misleading) facts. One could speculate that the IT experts participated in the interview as they were trying to be helpful to the reporter, or perhaps for some free advertising for their companies and or a dig at the current government for wide spread budget cuts to government IT spending? The story is gas lighting fear and scaremongering on both sides of the debate including that Māori activists are hacking the system with bots to try and get more submissions. The issue here is that Māori make up 8% or less of the IT industry and even fewer in InfoSec roles. The feasibility that Māori activists are doing the attack would... --- If you are using Microsoft Office products (most people still do) and not other free and sovereign options you likely received or will another annual increase in subscription fees by 40% this year, in addition to last years similar price rise. ConsumerNZ have a great article exposing that this price increase is actually because your account has extra services added to it. If you are not using Microsoft Co Pilot or have it and don't want it and only use Microsoft Office on one computer you can save about $150 per annum on a subscription. Follow the link above for all of the details. If you use Microsoft Office for personal use as it is a part of your employment, contract or education, you should be aware that once you leave that organisation you will no longer have full access to your files that are in the name of the organisation who license the software. From a Māori Data Sovereignty perspective, Microsoft Office is a colonial land grab, that occurs so discreetly and swiftly that most people do not even notice that their data is automatically backed up to OneDrive on international servers. A free and fully Māori and Indigenous Data Sovereign option is to use open source software. Open Office is very similar to Microsoft Office with many of the same apps Word, SpreadSheet, Presentation etc. It will also open all of your Office files. There are free addons such as a te reo Māori spell checker and it... --- 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 plagiarism. The common phenomenon of 'bias that an AI output is more superior than a human' is also common with teachers and examiners who believe the AI system outputs over the student. This bias is not only related to the education sector, but is widespread in many areas of society that uses AI such as Facial Recognition Technologies (FRT) with law enforcement agencies. A recent study has found that AI can in fact avoid the common plagiarism checks. The study reports that a rigorous blind study in 100% of AI written submissions were injected into the examinations system in five undergraduate modules, across all years of study, for a BSc degree in Psychology at a reputable UK university. The study found that 94% of the AI submissions were undetected. The grades awarded to the AI submissions were on average half a grade higher than that achieved by real students. Across modules there was an 83. 4% chance that the AI submissions on a module would outperform a random selection of the same number of real student submissions. Other research has also shown what many of us have noticed, AI detection tools can exhibit bias against... --- 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 other online data (membership registrations, whakapapa, etc) do not consider privacy, jurisdiction, domain branding as Māori, or prior consent of their email and web site associated data as an issue. Most Māori groups prefer to use international servers with no regard to Māori Data Sovereignty, jurisdiction, and other New Zealand legal protections to them and their communities, whānau and end users. The results from this research show that even the most prominent Māori (and Iwi) Data Sovereignty groups who advise the New Zealand government and others about Māori Data Sovereignty, most Māori tribes and even most Sovereign Māori advocates do not follow Māori Data Sovereignty principles or consider New Zealand legislation to protect their communities, whānau and end users, nor have most done so since at least 2018 when this test was first completed and annually reviewed since. Methodology Using publicly accessible IP and DNS tools, information such as IP numbers, jurisdiction, and MX records were used for this research and cross referenced with private tools. All groups were identified and used to represent a statistically collective majority and cross section of Māori rights organisations in New Zealand. Contact information forms were not formally considered... --- References used by Dr Karaitiana Taiuru in the presentation "Indigenous Privacy Perspectives from Aotearoa/New Zealand" at the IAAP ANZ Summit 2024 Melbourne Conference. References DIA Facial Recognition trial report obfuscate risks to Māori. Te Kete o Karaitiana Taiuru Blog. November 7, 2024 URL: https://taiuru. co. nz/dia-facial-recognition-trial-report-obfuscate-risks-to-maori/ AI expert concerned 'no Māori with moko' used in DIA facial recognition test cleared of racial bias. Radio New Zealand. November 7, 2024. URL: https://www. rnz. co. nz/news/national/533153/ai-expert-concerned-no-maori-with-moko-used-in-dia-facial-recognition-test-cleared-of-racial-bias Inconsistencies with Facial Recognition Trial called out by New Zealand’s independent consumer watchdog. Te Kete o Karaitiana Taiuru Blog. November 05, 2027 URL: https://taiuru. co. nz/inconsistencies-with-facial-recognition-trial-called-out-by-new-zealands-independent-consumer-watchdog/ Māori are more concerned about privacy in every way. The Office of the Privacy Commissioner (OPC) New Zealand. May 20, 2024 Foodstuffs North Island’s facial recognition trial: do the numbers add up? . Ruairi O'Shea. 31 October 2024. URL: https://www. consumer. org. nz/articles/foodstuffs-north-island-s-facial-recognition-trial-do-the-numbers-add-up Level B Evaluation Assurance – Identity Check Bias Evaluation: Test Report. Prepared for Te Tari Taiwhenua | Department of Internal Affairs By BixieLab. Document Code 24_BXL030_TR_12. October 23, 2024 URL: https://www. dia. govt. nz/diawebsite. nsf/Files/Identity-Check/$file/Identity-Check-Bias-Evaluation-Test-Report. pdf New Zealand's Internet Insights 2023. InternetNZ. December 2023 URL: https://internetnz. nz/assets/Uploads/New-Zealands-Internet-Insights-2023. pdf Māori Data Jurisdictional Data analysis. Karaitiana Taiuru. URL: https://www. taiuru. co. nz/maori-data-jurisdictional-data-analysis/ --- 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. Buried in the report was high probability of bias against Māori. DIA now say they will further test after asked by media in relation to this article. The independent test was conducted by BixeLab, one of only a handful of certified auditors in the world. Their report (version 3) sates it was only tested on 60% of the recommended number of people to get a 95% accurate rate, and only on internal DIA staff. Full report here. The report also ignored Māori with facial moko, and shows a high probability of bias to Māori with facial moko, consistent with Māori who have moko not being identified with their personal devices such as iPhone ID and Samsung Face Recognition. But the test hints that Māori with facial moko will likely be more likely victims of Face Recognition fraud. Furthermore, the Facial Recognition test is not scientific, discriminates against Māori and Māori with moko, and the report obfuscates the data to hide these facts with several media reporting that the Facial Recognition does not discriminate against Māori, echoing false statements in the report. Despite the report claiming otherwise. RNZ did a follow up to their original story, where the DIA stated they "are committed to engaging and collaborating further with Māori and the wider community and intends to conduct further studies". Stats The recommended number... --- 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 RNZ reported that a Māori woman was falsely identified in a Rotorua supermarket by the FRT and more astonishingly by the staff who were involved. In the same article I was quoted as saying " I not surprised to see Māori singled out in the trial and believed there were other Māori who had been affected but have not yet come forward". There were no other media reports since and no other cases that I was aware of. This month, Consumer NZ New Zealand's independent consumer watch dog analysed Foodstuff North Island's numbers from the Facial Recognition Trial and found some very concerning misleading statements The full article is at the Consumer NZ web site here. Key points for me are: - Foodstuff's refused requests for data by Consumer NZ and did not answer their questions - 1 in 175 chance of misidentification. 10 times higher than in Foodstuff's interpretation. - no ethnicity data was collected - Consumer NZ is concerned that FSNI may be exaggerating facial recognition’s impact in reducing instances of assault and abuse. - The Privacy Commissioner is now evaluating the results of FSNI’s trial of FRT. I am sure we all... --- 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 a Te Ao Māori perspective, this is your biological whakapapa of your entire generation, your whānau's future generations and of all of your tipuna. Whakapapa of DNA Here is one perspective of a DNA from a Māori person. It is taken from my PhD thesis "Māori Genetic Data - Inalienable Rights and Tikanga Sovereignty" which focused on these issues from a Te Ao Māori perspective and found that there were no Te Ao Māori guidelines for Māori, there are still not others to date. Scientists and genetic researchers may also find my publication useful "Tikanga Tawhito Tikanga Hou - Tikanga Associated with Biological Samples. ". A bioethics guideline that explores the ethical storage and research of Māori genetic samples. From the top, all Māori descend from the beginning of time. For some Māori and Iwi that is s supreme being called Io. For others it may be from Te Kore. There are other variations of creation stories among Iwi and hapū. For example my thesis has a much different form from Ngāi Tahu. For many Māori, there are the atua (deities) Ranginui (Sky Father) and Papatūānuku (earth mother) who had 70 plus children.... --- 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 the late 18th century, so effectively, that by 1980 we had less than 20% of native speakers nationwide, and within my own tribe we had 3 native speakers. Tribal dialects were also replaced with one standard version of Māori, influenced by the introduction of the written Bible and by ethnographers who chose to ignore the rich and diverse tribal dialects throughout our country in favor of a standard dialect. Large Language Models (LLMs) have the ability to revitalize dialects, it is not likely a preference for Māori as it is a local distinguishing treasure that is used by tribal members in physically meetings of cultural significance. Community activism throughout the late 1970’s and the establishment of language training for preschoolers and other educational facilities led to the Māori language being recognized as an official language in 1987. The key lessons learned for Māori was that the language had to be normalized in our lives and society, and then to be spoken by at least three generations within one family in order to be preserved. We have now reached that lofty dream, but moving forward we need to address the controversial topic of LLMs that are... --- 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 are already opted in by default to the X AI Chatbot called Grok. Grok has already been accused by the Data Protection Commission that X’s use of Grok violates GDPR guidelines on data protection and privacy. If you use X on your phone, you will likely not have seen the announcement. If you use X on a computer web browser you likely had an announcement at the bottom of your screen for 'a new link' which was actually a link to the new Privacy Policy which has multiple links and categories. Opting out of AI training In a web browser while logged into X Go to Settings Select Privacy and Safety Go to the third column called "Data sharing and personalization" Select Data sharing with business partners Select the tick box called Allow additional information sharing with business partners Opting out of Grok In a web browser while logged into X, you should be able to directly opt out via this link https://x. com/settings/grok_settings . Or In a web browser while logged into X Go to Settings Select Privacy and Safety Go to the third column called "Data sharing and personalization"... --- The dot io domain name is a common General Top Level Domain Name (GTLD) for many tech companies, but also for some Māori groups in part for the tech abbreviation for input/output but also as it is the name of a disputed Māori deity called Io. The dot io domain is assigned to a country that Britain colonised called the Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean (io). The UK this week announced that they will give sovereignty of Chagos Islands back to the Indigenous Peoples of Mauritius https://www. bbc. com/news/articles/c98ynejg4l5o . While many Māori will celebrate this, it does cause a unique Internet Governance issue which unfortunately, Māori have not been active with Internet Governance since the demise in 201. InternetNZ seem to have lost their knowledge in this area since the resignation of the previous CEO. Any registered dot io domain name is at the mercy of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) who follows a process to retire outdated country code domains within five years, with the option for extensions. This rule was put in place after the . su domain, originally assigned to the Soviet Union, persisted long after the country's collapse and became popular among cybercriminals. Similarly, IANA had to retire the . yu domain used by Yugoslavia, though it remained in use for years while government websites transitioned to new domains after the country’s dissolution. The Solomon Islands, now independent, uses the domain . sb (with "B" referencing its past as a British protectorate), although... --- 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 are a part of many recent announcements by Cloud Host Providers in New Zealand offering New Zealand and Māori sovereignty solutions. But it does highlight the crucial question "to what extent is this Māori Data Sovereignty" and is it good for all Māori and Iwi? This article will do a deep dive analysis into the many Aotearoa New Zealand providers and self hosting solutions to ascertain to what level is Māori Data Sovereignty being offered. 5 Māori Data Sovereignty hosting options are identified that are available for Māori Data Sovereignty. This article also discusses Māori and Iwi economic developments with Cloud Hosting providers and questions if fully sovereign cloud hosting is realistic, or if partnerships are more viable. What is Māori Data and Māori Data Sovereignty? He Raraunga Tino Rangatira We respect Māori are an independent and sovereign nation that recognises Māori data is a taonga and subject to Māori governance. Before this important discussion, we must address the issues of international cloud hosting companies and academics redefining and limiting for their own purposes, and a reflection of a lack of mātauranga (ancestorial knowledge) what these terms mean. We need to use mātauranga Māori to... --- 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 endorsed the trial and got approval from the government's chief privacy officer and the Office of the Privacy Commissioner. Other points include: · four fifths of its 300 users found a boost to the quality and speed of their work · A win for tangata whaiora – Tests found that along with boosts to service came gains in employee wellbeing, such as helping people with ADHD or poor hearing focus more in meetings, or those with dyslexia to revise content. · IP and privacy of clients has been managed and not compromised. It didn’t learn from the queries staff made or the information they used with it, and did not add that information to its learning banks · will help inform other government organisations who may wish to also use M365 Copilot · Getting access to it was "highly sought after · The data and prompts are not retained by the large learning module, nor does it use the data and prompts we provide to learn · Some information was off-limits, such as business apps · The risks of breaching client personal information are mostly alleviated because it does not integrate with ACC's authoritative client... --- 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 against Māori and shows that the government is working in isolation from AI industry and researchers and Māori. Key findings are that most government agencies use AI for administrative tasks as opposed to anything innovative. This is likely due the top three key survey results that there is a lack of AI skills and policies in addition to privacy concerns in government agencies. Source: 2024 cross-agency AI survey Considering Generative AI such as ChatGPT has been a household name in Aotearoa New Zealand since the end of 2022. Since then, we have seen a significant increase in many other generative AI tools. But at the same time, we have not seen an increase in training for businesses, government agencies or people wanting to have a career in Artificial Intelligence. All survey results about AI in New Zealand society reflect this. Amongst the report is a recommended resource jointly authored by Internal Affairs (DIA), National Cyber Security Centre and StatsNZ “Initial advice on Generative Artificial Intelligence in the public service”. The advice states that is intended for public service procurement, data, digital, privacy and security leaders. Furthermore, that it "is intended to help better understand the... --- 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 and impact on music creators in Australia and New Zealand. August 2024 was commissioned by APRA AMCOS (Australasian Performing Right Association Limited (APRA) and Australasian Mechanical Copyright Owners Society (AMCOS). For the purposes of this article, I offer comparative observations of the Māori and of Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander musicians views, who were a part of the survey. There were 38 Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islanders and 53 Māori musicians surveyed about their views of AI and its impact to their music and cultural protections of traditional knowledge with music. Some key general findings of music creators that Māori and other Indigenous Peoples should also be aware of in addition to cultural issues include: 65% think that the risks of AI use outweigh its possible opportunities 82% are concerned that the use of AI in music could lead to music creators no longer being able to make a living from their work 83% agree that due to the increase in AI-generated work, issues around visibility and discoverability of songs on steaming platforms is increasingly important 88% believe that music made by humans should be promoted on streaming platforms 23% of music creators’ revenues by... --- 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 of their data. " "There are limitations, Running Wolf said, like sparse data and the polysynthetic nature of many Indigenous languages. " In New Zealand we are unique in the fact that the Māori language is New Zealand's first official language. I also argue that the Māori language is perhaps one of the most published and digitised indigenous languages in the world. We can not claim ownership of much of what has been digitised. But we can create data that is by Māori for Māori and then ensure some sovereignty and ownership over those data sets. We also need to be careful in what we digitise going forward and ensure there are copyright protections and restrictions from unauthorised usage. Already we have seen several international companies using the digitised Māori language resources to train their own AI and then offer those systems back to companies as an AI translation program. There are several non Māori companies in New Zealand who are also using this data to train train their own AI systems. While Māori do have at least one Māori owned company that are a significant player in AI and... --- 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, data that Māori, hapū, iwi an hāpori Māori consider to be tapu. This article will consider the jurisdictional sub principal in more detail. It will use as a base the recent media release and media articles in relation to the Microsoft New Zealand and Te Tumu Paeroa Māori Data Sovereignty initiative, which one article titled "Microsoft enters ‘groundbreaking’ Māori data sovereignty deal" and attracted some disinformation and confusion among some Māori data advocates. In summary Te Tumu Paeroa publicly accessible data and land owners collective data that is accessible via login details that is currently in the cloud overseas and in New Zealand will be repatriated back to New Zealand servers using Azure Cloud which also has a Sovereign encryption key. Microsoft also agreed to allow customary Māori protocols and tikanga to be carried out according to media reports and personal correspondence. At this stage, it is important to now consider that the Waitangi Tribunal’s updated 2023 WAI 2522 Report on the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) stated that Māori Data is a Taonga and subject to Māori Data Governance. The Microsoft and Te Tumu Paeroa case reflects that Māori Data is... --- This article debunks the false narrative that Te Tiriti o Waitangi has a hidden or overlooked Article 4 that gave Māori the right to religious freedom. Despite all political parties agreeing there is no Article 4, that Article 4 is not mentioned in any Waitangi Tribunal Reports and is not a part of any of the original parchments and papers that Te Tiriti o Waitangi was written on and signed in 1840 there is a small group of Māori and rumours that it exists. Waitangi Tribunal The Waitangi Tribunal is a standing commission of inquiry. It makes recommendations on claims brought by Māori relating to legislation, policies, actions or omissions of the Crown that are alleged to breach the promises made in the Treaty of Waitangi. In fulfilling this role, the Waitangi Tribunal has exclusive authority to determine the meaning and effect of the Treaty. It can decide on issues raised by the differences between the Māori and English texts of the Treaty. The role of the Waitangi Tribunal is set out in section 5 of the Treaty of Waitangi Act 1975. It includes: inquiring into and making recommendations on well-founded claims examining and reporting on proposed legislation, if it is referred to the Tribunal by the House of Representatives or a Minister of the Crown making recommendations or determinations about certain Crown forest land, railways land, state-owned enterprise land, and land transferred to educational institutions. Section 5 "Functions of Tribunal' subsection 2 states "In exercising any of its functions... --- This article looks at the gender bias with Māori language translations using the non gender specific pronoun in the Māori language 'ia'. There is a significant amount of historical and recent research with, but not limited to Large language models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT, Google Bard, or LLMs containing various biases including against females and LGBTQ+ when translating non gender-specific pronoun languages , i. e. 'he' or 'she'. While society and the industry are aware of these biases, research continues to be produced and as late as 2024 that still show that these bias exist and continue. Māori language as with other languages including Armenian, Basque, Georgian, Persian/Farsi, Tagalog, Turkish, Pulaar, Swahili, Yoruba, written Mandarin and written Cantonese use non gender-specific pronouns languages. There is are an estimated 84 million native Cantonese speakers in China (4. 5% of China's population) compared with 933 million Mandarin first-language speakers (61. 2% of people in China) . The Māori language was made an official language of Aotearoa New Zealand in 1987 with the Māori Language Act 1987 which was repealed on 30 April 2016, by section 48 of Te Ture mō Te Reo Māori 2016/the Māori Language Act 2016 (2016 No 17). Census data in 2022 states that one quarter of Māori speak Māori as their first language and that New Zealanders are increasingly speaking the Māori language. Using the same methodology I used in May 30, 2010 Is Google Racist? and a follow up research article 13 years later in October 20,... --- Slack is a cloud-based team communication platform developed by Slack Technologies, which has been owned by Salesforce since 2020. Slack has freemium and paid subscriptions. Slack's primary userbase is businesses, and has functionalities primarily for businesses. It is also popular among many groups including Māori. Recently and very discreetly Slack announced on their Privacy Principles: Search, Learning and Artificial Intelligence that it was using users data (feeds, information, emojis, etc) to train its Artificial Intelligence (AI). There were no other public announcements only users making public posts and media requests that were replied to. Inside the policy, Slack stated that users can opt out, but that only the admin of the organisation of the Slack account can opt out. This creates major Māori Data Sovereignty, Intelectual Property Rights and Privacy issues for users and in particular risks for New Zealand company directors. By not opting out of Slack using your data for its AI, it means that your data will be harvested and used to train the Slack AI to learn various tasks about your behaviour. You are then invited to pay a subscription to use the AI. While at the time of writing, the data may not be significant, there are a number of risks to consider including: What Privacy Act and organisation policy implications exist? Will another discreet policy change again to be more intrusive? How anonymous is the data being harvested? Who has access to that data? What happens if your confidential company data is used in... --- 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. TVNZ have a great video introduction of Deep Fakes. The ease of simplicity of creating deep fakes with AI is ever increasingly being used by non technical people and alarmingly among youth in New Zealand. This use of AI technology when used by criminals can be dangerous and manipulative. Without proper guidelines and frameworks in place, more whānau, businesses, land trusts, marae, iwi, hapū and any organisations risk falling victim to AI scams like deepfakes. Statistically Māori are more likely to be victims of all forms of online fraud and online abuses. Recently, scammers have been targeting online tangi of recently deceased Māori, fraudulent pay for online Kapa Haka competitions. There are also several public and private cases of innocent Māori women where scammers have taken their image from business web sites and social media, and applied their faces to a porn web site adverts and other adult entertainment advertising. Māori and other cultures are also predominantly victims of image theft of individual's personal faces, in particular for Māori (those with facial moko) that are then used in art and photo shopped with racist diatribes and on sold as art. Examples of Deepfakes Security commenters... --- 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 chatbot falsely responded that I could by: "Select Settings and Privacy Then click on Settings and scroll down to AI settings and click on AI and machine learning Toggle off AI search. For those of us who tried it, there are no further settings for AI within the main Settings page, and the toggle the chatbot mentions doesn't exist. Furthermore, there are many posts circulating showing how to stop Meta AI (see below). Again, for those who try, they will see that this is also a scam. There are also many people sharing false media posts that tell Meta AI that the poster does not consent to Meta AI in their social media profile. If you read the Terms of Agreement with your various social media, you will see that if you do not want to use Meta AI, you can delete your account. There is no other way to not use it. Meta AI's help page states that "Meta AI's responses may not be accurate or appropriate. " It seems to be the case here. Search in Facebook You can still utilise the search functions on Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp as they previously have... --- Only 5 weeks ago I warned Facial Recognition Technology bias in the Foodstuffs trial was technically likely and not a matter of if, but when and that Māori women would likely be discriminated against. That same week Māori Television first reported "Māori women and women of colour will be targeted’ in Foodstuffs’ facial recognition trial – Māori tech expert to balance the primary narrative by two white men in authority. Then most New Zealand mainstream and many Māori media companies began providing coverage giving a cultural perspective including Radio Waatea, NZ Herald, 1news, J. R. Bruning Talking Risk, and international coverage including OpenGov and BNN. Sadly, only two days ago, about a month after the trail started, the NZ Herald reported that a Māori women has been falsely identified as a trespassed thief by FoodStuffs Facial Recognition Technology in Rotorua, despite the victim offering her ID a telling two staff that the photo was not her. All of this despite FoodStuffs making public claims that it was safe and its staff were trained. Foodstuffs have stated they have specifically trained staff to verify images that are a 90% or higher match. The technology scans customers’ faces and compares these images to those on the store’s databases of known offenders or suspects. All appropriate staff would receive further training and the incident would be reported to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner. Despite the innocent victim offering three forms of ID that would have proved she was not the person trespassed... --- This is the second media commendatory on Māori perspectives that relate to AI stories in the media and developments. Again, there are so many stories to consider. Week ending April 10, 2024. LinkedIn post - AI and IA pronouns Waipapa Taumata Rau The University of Auckland and AI expert Professor Michael Witbrock on LinkedIn authored a post that started I think there's an argument for a new class of pronouns for AI systems. Or for non-human non-animals. There was some commentary about the use of pronouns in general. I added a comment that attracted a significant amount of views and interactions, where I said The Māori language (Indigenous New Zealand) uses 'ia' for any of the pronouns for both human and non-human. This is a good conversation, especially as myself and others are questioning Indigenous knowledge and the realm of AI that utilises such knowledge. My response requires a much more detail to explain the Māori philosophies and lore behind the concept and much more about epistemologies of humans, living species and non physical elements in the Māori world, but I will do that as a separate writing at a later date. A response by Professor Witbrock concluded with the following part comment: ... it's nice on the surface that IA and AI reflect each other). This creates the opportunity for a much larger and in depth philosophical question of AI and pronouns, but also the real possibility that the Māori pronoun 'ia' could be used as an international loan... --- I provide my commentary of this weeks 6 media stories of Māori related news regarding Artificial Intelligence and Data Sovereignty. Noting it is highly unusual for even one media story a week regarding Māori and Artificial Intelligence. It is also a reminder that we all must be talking about and recognising Artificial Intelligence is being woven into our societies whether we are aware or even want it. Rawhitiroa Photography (March 26, 2014) The Māori photography FaceBook page Rawhitiroa Photography announced that the Christian group “The Hope Project” stole their image of Patrick Mohi laying the wero at Te Wānanga Mau Taiaha o Mokoia and added someone else's face onto his body and photoshop the background. The image was used in their advertising material in a context that implied that it represented Ruatara, an ancestor from Te Tai Tokerau to give legitimacy to their religious messages. Te Ao Māori News was the first to break the story. Rawhitiroa Photography found out about the image as the flier was delivered the person in the original photo's son. To add insult to the blatant theft, breach of Māori tikanga (customary protocols) and cultural misappropriation: When challenged about it, they had the cheek to say that the images were from the public domain and that copyright didn’t apply. I have chosen not to use the images, but they were still on the public Facebook page at the time of writing. So yes, there is nothing illegal about this under New Zealand intellectual property rights... --- Māori Peoples are at the cross roads with Artificial Intelligence and other emerging technologies; We can either turn right and decolonise and empower ourselves, or turn left and have status quo with all of the negative statistics and inequities. Featured Image Credit The AI Tribe. While the world faces the rapid growth of AI technologies, there is no reason why Māori can not be leaders in the area of Artificial Intelligence and determine their own economic sustainability and new opportunities for culture, social and overall wellbeing, rewinding the decades of negative statistics society has offered. (c) Karaitiana Taiuru This preliminary kaupapa Māori research has analysed the representation that Māori have in the New Zealand AI commercial, industry and academic landscapes and looked at what voices and representation Māori have in this new and influential growth area. Considering AI has potential to drive innovation and contribute to improved social, environmental, and economic outcomes for New Zealanders . It is estimated that the digital technologies sector contributed $7 billion towards New Zealand’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2021 . A report by the New Zealand Productivity Commission found that up to 46% of jobs in New Zealand are at risk of automation over the next 20 years. According to a survey by PwC, 30% of jobs in New Zealand are at high risk of automation by the early 2030's and the he adoption of AI in New Zealand is expected to increase productivity by 1. 5% annually . The New Zealand government... --- This thought-provoking commentary delves into the intersection of te ao Māori and Artificial Intelligence (AI) regulation. While many Māori have expressed a desire for AI regulation, this post raises the point that doing so too soon could have unintended consequences. It's important to consider the implications of AI regulation from a te ao Māori perspective. Let's continue to explore this topic and ensure that any decisions made are well-informed and culturally respectful*. Until only recently, commentators in the AI and regulation space have been bias against Māori perspectives due to no Māori voices being considered, a matter that has now significantly changed. Importantly, it must be noted that Artificial Intelligence is not a new technology and talk of regulating it has only become a popular topic in recent years, likely due to the public release of ChatGPT. AI begun its developments in the 1940's to 1960 with several pathways of technological development occurring that has led to what we now consider AI. Many consider that it was not till 1956 that AI as a concept was initialised by Allen Newell, Cliff Shaw and Herbert Simon’s, Logic Theorist programme. Two primary sets of research are analysed from a 2023 DataCom survey on business leaders use and the recent 2024 InternetNZ survey of New Zealand perceptions of online and AI. Also considered is research commissioned by The Law Foundation New Zealand and NetSafe research about online abuse that show Māori are more likely to be victims of online abuse in all of... --- This article explores why there is no 'one Māori opinion' and aims to dispel media and politicians comments about "Māori in fighting" use this to create further separation with Waitangi claims, iwi issues and other iwi/social issues that seem to make it to mainstream media. It is based upon Sir Mason Durie's "Maori Health Decade Hui" paper presented at the Te Ara Ahu Whakamua in 1994, and Maharaia Winiata's "The changing role of the leader in Māori Society (1964) as a basis for consideration using decades of personal observations and using modern day society values. Māori are diverse. A person with whakapapa may have no access to the idealistic te ao Māori... They are no less Māori, and their whakapapa is no less tapu than any other Māori (Law Commission Surrogacy Review paragraph 2. 54 pg 56). It is also important to note that each Māori individual has genealogical links to at least one, but likely multiple: Waka, Iwi, Hapū and Marae of which each have their own and epistemologies, ancestors, dialects, protocols, western and traditional organisational structures. Moreover, with over 250 years of colonial interactions, all Māori individuals have mixed ancestries, mixed cultural beliefs, mixed social and educational lives, and a complex lived life experiences, sometimes good and sometimes bad. Having an awareness of this "diverse Māori reality" acts as a reminder to not assume that there is one Māori perspective, or that because Māori individuals or groups may disagree with each other that there is hostility. This framework... --- This article was originally commissioned by Ngā Toki Whakarururanga for a general audience. For a Te Ao Māori perspective, refer to my 2020 article Māori Cultural considerations with Facial Recognition Technology in New Zealand. Since the news attention in February 2024 that Foodstuffs North Island Limited's New World and PAK'nSAVE is trailing Facial Recognition Technology in supermarkets (Radio Waatea, Te Ao Māori News, RNZ) in the following towns: Brookfield Tauranga, Hillcrest Rotorua, Whitiora Hamilton, Napier South, New Plymouth Central, Silverdale and Tamatea, Napier. This article has been updated and made more applicable to the current situation. Introduction 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 some beneficiaries of Ministry of Social Development (MSD) they controversially use Facial Recognition to self identify themselves. For law enforcement agencies, Facial Recognition Technology (FRT) systems are used to decide many factors including who becomes a suspect in a police investigation. Now many consumers in New Zealand who visits New World or PAK'nSAVE supermarkets will likely be profiled with Facial Recognition Technology (FRT) in an effort to make shopping safer for customers and staff. This despite the wide and increasingly growing research of the bias and ineffectiveness of FRT has against non white males. Citizen’s rights and social justice groups, alongside the research community, have identified undesirable societal consequences arising from the uncritical use of FRT algorithms, including false... --- In a new threat to Māori online, a new scam is increasing where scammers are creating false social media accounts as death notices and online funeral streaming accounts. Facebook and other social media has become an essential way of communications, particularly with Māori. Many of us find that if we stop using social media, we become disconnected from whānau and friends, especially those who live away from our homes. So we need to address this issue now. The growth of AI and in particular Chat Bots and LLM's such as ChatGPT, will give scammers more options and power to create sophisticated scams that may sound like our whānau, speak and write in te reo Māori and as I witnessed today, a ChatGPT that uses mātauranga from a kaumātua that can answer many common pepeha questions. This new trend of online scammers creating fake social media usually calling the account something similar to “Person X, online tangi account” and similar words. This is predominantly on FaceBook, but I suspect this will if it has not already, be using emails and other ways to connect with the whānau pani (grieving family). The scammer/false accounts use the same photos of the deceased person that the whānau pani have used to announce that their loved one has passed away. These fake accounts will then go through all of the grieving family members FaceBook accounts and add their friends. The scam then occurs when the scammer account asks for a koha to a bank account... --- With information relating to . iwi. nz and . maori. nz and domain name disputes (2016) Karaitiana N Taiuru and Te Rangikaiwhiria Kemara Fist published in 2016 as a pdf. Republished in 2023 as a post. Introduction This paper is a beginners guide to Internet Domain names in New Zealand with some reference to other domain names outside of New Zealand. The information in this document may not be accurate to other domain names outside of New Zealand. It is not intended to be a comprehensive document nor is it a technical paper. Some sections are not in full detail for the reason that this is only an introduction to the area for the end user. In fact some sections were very difficult to write considering this document is only intended to be an Introduction. This paper was originally written for the members of the New Zealand Maori Internet Society and the media who followed the . maori. nz life cycle. This document may be relevant to anyone who is interested in the Internet and whom is not familiar with the naming system. This could include individuals, web authors, people/groups intending registering their first domain name and people who are interested in the basics of the Internet and it’s structure inside New Zealand. 2. A brief history of the Internet and World Wide Web The Internet was created in 1969 when it was known as ARPANET. It was originally a research project developed by an agency called ARPA (Advanced Research... --- First published in 2012 as a pdf and republished in 2024. Discussion about the costs, procedures and the currently vast amount of space on the Internet for Māori that is either underutilised or not utilised at all. The issue that it will take at least two separate, but more likely three separate applications to have a safe . maori environment are explored the fact that there are alternatives to creating a new . maori domain. Introduction ICANN the worlds governing body of Internet Names and Numbers recently announced that anyone could apply for the creation of a new Internet address suffix to add to the current extensions such as . com, . org. , . net etc1. Technically this is called a GTLD – General Top Level Domain or a string. There are currently 22 GTLD’s and 280 Country Code Top Level Domains including . nz . The introduction of the new strings will see the internet flooded with new strings. In the first round there could possibly be another 1,930 strings to consider using when registering a domain name. . maori is a possible suffix that is being discussed by groups of Māori and non Māori. This paper explores the facts that . maori is both myopic and an unsustainable investment that will add no further benefits to online Māori. In fact . maori could in fact create more issues for Māori on the web. I discuss the costs, procedures and the currently vast amount of space on the... --- This post elaborates on my RNZ interview about the Ministry of Social Development (MSD) rolling out Facial Recognition Technology for beneficiaries to self-identity online without the need to visit a MSD office, despite the well documented racism and bias of the systems. The Ministry of Social Development’s decision is lacking a privacy, human rights, and ethics framework - though this was a must-have, it said, and with no consultation with Māori, a total disregard for international research and literature that shows the bias and racist way the technology impacts People of Colour such as Māori and Pasifika. It was also revealed by RNZ that the Facial recognition technology has failed half the time in tests of a landmark government system, adding to the costs, time and questions around it. OIA documents obtained by RNZ raise the prospect of the system failing even more on Māori. This reflects the media statements by the NZ Police with their tests. More disturbing is the lack of care by MSD that Google analytics is being used in the system. The way Google Analytics sends metadata back to the US for processing has fallen foul of regulators in Austria, Denmark, Italy, France, and the Netherlands this year. This is a clear breach of the WAI 25222 Waitangi Tribunal recommendation that Māori Data is a Taonga and subject to Māori Governance. The MSD Māori working group chair Toa Faneva admitted that the system would have racist tendencies by saying "There will be some instances where that... --- These peer reviewed principles were originally written by Dr Karaitiana Taiuru, to provide a Māori and Te Tiriti perspective on Artificial Intelligence with Health, complimenting the ‘Principals section’ written by Professor James Maclaurin – Te Whare Wānanga o Ōtākou | The University of Otago, for inclusion into the collaborative and peer reviewed report “Capturing the benefits of AI in the healthcare for Aotearoa New Zealand. A rapid response from the Prime Minister's Chief Science Advisor, Kaitohutohu Pūtaia Matua ki te Pirimia”. The principles have been modified to be a general set of principles for all AI. Various specialised AI such as languages, legal, education, etc will need to modify these principles to make them applicable to the various AI. INTRODUCTION The rise in the widespread usage and access of Artificial Intelligence, especially with Large Language Learning Models (LLMs) such as OpenAI and by companies such as Google and Microsoft in the past year have by far superseded any Māori Data guides and frameworks. These guidelines also reinforce the idea of creating a Te Tiriti based Māori LLM for educational purposes and to balance the current bias, censure and false media against Māori, as Latima, nicknamed the Black GPT. The rapid growth has also raised the questions about AI regulation in New Zealand and the idea of New Zealand sovereignty for AI to protect the interests of New Zealand. These principles are the foundational ethical principles for any AI system that uses Māori Data, produces Māori Data, or makes decisions about... --- This article is primarily for Māori web site content owners who may have some mātauranga Māori on their web sites that they do not want consumed by ChatGPT and other AI or search engines, or who simply want to exercise their own Māori Data Sovereignty principles and rights as afforded by Te Tiriti o Waitangi. There are a number of other issues as a content owner that you should be aware of including where your web site is hosted, the licence and privacy agreements with your provider or their provider etc. This article assumes prior knowledge of these issues. ChatGPT It's relatively easy to disallow GPTBot from crawling your site if you don’t want OpenAI using your content by either adding a new Robots. txt file or by adding to an existing one. Robots. txt is a plain text file used to tell bots what they are allowed or disallowed to crawl on a website. The file is located in the root directory of your site. You can view it by adding "robots. txt" after your site’s URL. You will need to access/edit the robots. txt file either via FTP or a File Manager is your web host panel. The text below should be added to your existing Robots. txt file or you will need to create a new file called robots. txt and upload it to the root of your web site. There is no other code required. User-agent: GPTBot Disallow: / To allow ChatGPT to access only selected... --- These principles have been adapted to general robotics for both the industry and research to better assist the industry to acknowledge Te Tiriti o Waitangi. If creating robotics for health, then there are nationally agreed Te Tiriti principles for health that should be used in stead. For researchers, these principles can be used as a guide for grant applications to meet Vision Mātauranga Māori and other criteria; for developers as a high level guide to ensure that your robotics work will be culturally safe and recognises Te Tiriti o Waitangi. If your robotics project is using Māori Data, then please use the Māori Data Sovereignty Principles in addition to these. At this stage, community consultation is still being undertaken about AI from a te Ao Māori perspective. Legal and constitutional considerations of Māori and Te Tiriti with robotics? He Whakaputanga/The Declaration of the Independence of New Zealand (1835) - New Zealand's first constitutional document giving rangatiratanga among other rights to Māori. Te Tiriti o Waitangi 1840 - A legally binding treaty with the Crown and Māori. The Treaty of Waitangi Act 1975 - Legislation binding the Crown to honor Te Tiriti and He Whakaputanga Māori Language Act 1987: repealed, by section 48 of Te Ture mō Te Reo Māori 2016/the Māori Language Act 2016 - Making Māori Language an official language of New Zealand. United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples 2007 - Recognising Indigenous Peoples Rights New Zealand Common Law in its judgement Peter Hugh McGregor Ellis... --- Anonymised Data is a western perspective for data that is anonymous as they human eye can't see where the data came from, who the data is about and where the data originated from. From A Te Ao Māori (traditional Māori cultural perspective) anonymous Māori Data that originates from Māori Data, then that anonymous data is still Māori Data and is still a Taonga as it contains a Whakapapa and, mātauranga and a Mauri. In the WAI 2522 decision, the Waitangi tribunal found that any Māori Data that has mātauranga is a Taonga. From both a Western and a Māori perspective, all data must have an origin and a purpose, hence from a Māori perspective and as found by the Waitangi Tribunal, all anonymous data that uses Māori Data is both Māori Data and a Taonga as it contains mātauranga Māori. The only way Māori Data can claim to not contain Mauri is if a special cultural ceremony is performed over the data removing the any mauri. These cultural ceremonies usually involves water, smoke from a fire and karakia. Noting that to remove a mauri from Māori Data is not possible unless there is a stand-alone server that is not connected to the Internet or any other device and or server, without damaging the hardware. Regardless, the Māori data will still in the very least have a whakapapa, hence mātauranga that is not seen by the human eye, but it still exists. Examples of colonial thinking that our pre colonial data... --- This brief post will discuss and analyse if synthetic digital data that is used with Māori Data, is itself Māori Data and therefore a Taonga. It will use traditional Māori customary values and beliefs (tikanga) and Māori Data Sovereignty principles and applying those in an Māori perspective, resulting in a non western perspective explaining if synthetic digital Data is a Taonga. A new post will be created to discuss Synthetic Biology. What is synthetic data (digital) Synthetic data is data (Text, Media such as video, image, sound and Tabular data, ) that has been artificially generated by computer algorithms, as opposed to real data that has been collected from natural events. Synthetic data is used when an organisation doesn't have the data or enough of it. This is especially applicable to Māori Data, often caused by a lack of data due to mistrust of researchers and the Crown, or being under-represented in research. Sometimes legacy infrastructures and siloed data systems make it uneconomical or technically too difficult to extract data. In today's data protection regulatory landscape, it can also be a matter of legal compliance. For example in New Zealand the Privacy Act 2020 may be too restrictive for an orgnisation to use real life data. Other reasons could include security and sovereignty concerns that the data is too sensitive to be migrated to a cloud infrastructure or off shore, or simply that it is cheaper to use synthetic data. The use of generative AI to create synthetic data is... --- I was honoured to present at the prestigious Gibbon Lectures earlier this year and to be hosted by the School of Computer Science at University of Auckland. I share my thoughts about how we (Māori) are at a crossroads in human evolution, and that AI could be used to decolonise and empower Māori. I discuss how all Indigenous Peoples including Māori are on the brink of being colonised again with AI if they are not a part of the ethics, initial planning and decision-making processes, as beta testers and codevelopers, throughout the entire life cycle of generative AI from inception to deployment and then in a monitoring capacity. The talk then discusses the positive impacts of generative AI with te reo Māori and future considerations for Māori Peoples with generative AI in our traditional settings such as marae and pōwhiri. Otherwise, we will be at the start of a new colonial evolution that has been developing for nearly 60 years. The video is hosted on YouTube here and starts at about 7. 23 mins in. --- How do I transfer my domain name out of the Domain Name Commision holding registrar to my registrar/domain name provider of choice? What to consider when transferring your domain name? Level of support Before transferring your domain name, consider the level of support you need from your registrar, especially if you have multiple . nz domain names. Customer service options vary for each registrar. For example, some registrars can only be contacted by email, while others provide 24/7 contact center support. Terms and pricing To avoid surprises, go through the terms and pricing of registrar companies and find out what the renewal costs will be when your domain name comes up for renewal. Here is the step by step process to transfer your domain name Step 1: Choose a new domain name provider (registrar). A registrar is a business that sells and supports domain names. To transfer your domain name to a new registrar, you will first need to select a new one. A list of authorised registers can be found here: list of . nz authorised registrars Some registrars offer other services, such as website hosting and email services. Others provide registration as a stand-alone service. Some registrars are "IDN friendly". This means these registrars can register domain names using the Māori macrons, ā, ē, ī, ō and ū in the . nz domain space. If you require this functionality you can select "IDN friendly" in your search to see which registrars offer this service - see the list... --- ChatGPT has become a household name for many, and is usually in the mainstream media each day. There has been very little discussion about ChatGPT and the risks and benefits to Indigenous languages, and in particular Māori language - the indigenous language of New Zealand. ChatGPT and other Artificial Intelligence (AI) Language Learning Models (LLM's) such as Microsoft AI-Bing, Google Bard and the many others have already in a short period of time proven that they can learn a language, produce outputs of a language and be used as a teaching and translation tool. This article discusses how the Māori language can benefit and grow through AI tools using ChatGPT as a focus. This article also discusses intellectual property rights and dispel some myths associated with AI and languages, while explaining that AI can also colonise the Māori language if not co designed with Māori. The authors early career started with Māori language revitalisation in 1997, with a speciality using digital technologies to record and promote the Māori language revitalisation and regional dialects - with great success including a number of software products and technologies that pioneered Māori language revitalisation. In the late 1990' there were a lot of scare mongering and ill-informed statements about technology and its use with Māori language revitalisation. The author is seeing and hearing the same discussions about AI and the Māori language. There are also differing opinions such as my long time Māori Language Revitalisation colleague, Te Taka Keegan sharing his views here. Disclaimer... --- Māori Data Sovereignty is now more crucial than ever, with "Dr. Pratik Desai, a Silicon Valley computer scientist who has founded multiple Artificial Intelligence platforms, boldly predicts that a human being’s “consciousness could be uploaded onto digital devices by the end of the year ". For my regular readers, you will know I predicted this several years ago, that it would be a possibility. Generative Artificial Intelligence while still in its infancy, is an example of how an AI can use data it is trained on, to make statements that appear to be from a human being. ChatGPT is perhaps the most commonly known GAI on the market, but it is not the only one and there are several other corporations investing in this area. Already, if you had a personal generative AI and only trained it on data of a person, the AI could appear to make statements as if it was the person of the data. We have seen AI claim to have a personal name and even that it is sentient. There are already reported scams of AI impersonating people's voices based on as little as 30 seconds of audio. I predict that Māori media personalities and te ao Māori leaders will be targeted en masse to scam our own whānau, marae, hapū and Iwi. Evolving Tikanga Future breaches of tikanga will create new issues for whānau, hapū and Iwi and to Māori individuals over their own rangatiratanga of their physical body and thoughts after death. Taking... --- On Friday (Saturday NZT) Google released a Civil Rights Audit that it had voluntarily contracted an external law firm WilmerHale that examines how its policies and services impact civil rights and made a number of recommendations to address misinformation and hate speech. It is too American centric and doesn't even appear to consider the Indigenous Peoples of America, while speaking about Black Americans, Latino's and Asians. Pacific Islanders were mentioned, but it is not clear if that refers to Native Hawai'ians? The cites the definition of 'civil rights' as "... definition is based on U. S. anti-discrimination statutes, regulatory guidance, and academic literature, among other sources. In developing the list of protected characteristics, we consulted guidance from the U. S. Department of Justice and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. ' This is a good example why international companies that have a moral obligation to the citizens of the country they have global offices in, to consider global issues as opposed to only the parent country and their citizens. This report does very little to consider the issues Māori face with YouTube, and online hate speech in various Google services including adverts. WilmerHale stated they briefly reached out to Alphabet's global offices including Asia-Pacific. Yet, there is no mention of Te Tiriti, nor does it mention The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) which the United States and 143 other countries, including New Zealand has adopted, essentially making the report less about Indigenous Peoples who suffer hate... --- Microsoft recently announced that it was upgrading it's search engine Bing' to include AI from OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT. One new feature is a chat feature. Microsoft only sent out invites to select users so far, but it looks like it will be open for public testing in the coming weeks. At this early stage the general public were invited to sign up to be early testers of the AI Bing. At the moment, I am still on the waiting list. However, I do have a suggestion for new AI due to the high risks to minorities and in particular to Indigenous Peoples. That is to establish minority testing groups to ensure that as wide as possible sector of the community can test and identify issues. It is statistically likely that the testers Microsoft invited are middle class white men who work in technology, further supporting the bias of AI and Data. But even those testers have widely reported that the Bot has an "alternative personality" called Sydney, the code name Microsoft gave it during development. Sydney spoke of hacking and even told one reporter that it was in love with him, later trying to convince the reporter that he should leave his wife for Bing. Sydney the BOT has made threats against users, told incorrect information such as the date, called testers liars, and a whole range of other 'gas lighting behaviour'. But, I have yet to see any feedback from an Indigenous perspective or about Indigenous Peoples... --- ChatGPT (Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer) is a chatbot launched by OpenAI in November 2022. It has been discussed by international mainstream media with many academics and education facilities concerned at it's ability to assist with plagiarised writings and research. As with any new technologies, there is very little Indigenous perspectives or input into developments which usually result in bias and racism against minorities and Indigenous Peoples. This brief article explores some Māori cultural perspectives. Bias against minorities with technology is nothing new, in fact it is expected. In 2010 and in 2013 I showed that Google search engine was racist against Māori, and now with all of the mainstream attention to ChatGPT, I tried to find if it was bias or racist against Māori and if it is likely that a ChatGPT could replace Māori language translators, if it could be an issue for kura kaupapa Māori and other immersion courses with students using ChatGPT to write essays and class work. I created the following sections to ask random questions that someone with a medium knowledge of mātauranga Māori and more substantial knowledge of one of my tribes Ngāi Tahu "Karakia, Pepeha, Mātauranga & Common biases about Māori, Te Reo Māori. Karakia I asked ChatGPT to "create a karakia to Tangaroa". Tangaroa is the atua of the ocean for many iwi. This was the result: E Tangaroa, e nga atua o te moana, Whakapau kaha ki a tatou mahi, Ma tatou e whakatairanga i o tatou taonga moana, Me whakapakari... --- This article will introduce the many notions of Indigenous Data and Māori Data Sovereignty and explain the differences. It is becoming common in New Zealand that the terms Indigenous and Māori Data Sovereignty are interchangeably used by Māori Data practitioners and the Crown, removing all Te Tiriti, legal and moral rights to Māori Data and recognition that Māori Data is a Taonga. INDIGENOUS (General) This is a term that is predominately used in Data Sovereignty by and for Indigenous Peoples and their tribes in the United States of America. In 2020, 574 Indian tribes were legally recognized by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) of the United States 1. There are estimated that more than 400 are not federally recognised. Indigenous Data Indigenous data is defined here as data in a wide variety of formats inclusive of digital data and data as knowledge and information. It encompasses data, information, and knowledge about Indigenous individuals, collectives, entities, lifeways, cultures, lands, and resources. Indigenous Data Sovereignty Indigenous Data Sovereignty (IDS) is defined as the right of an Indigenous nation to govern the collection, ownership, and application of data generated by its members. This is primarily an American Indigenous Peoples definition. Indigenous Data Sovereignty is an international term that arose from the implications of the 2010 United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) for the collection, ownership and application of data pertaining to Indigenous Peoples and what these might mean for Indigenous Peoples’ sovereignty. ALASKA NATIVE/INUIT DATA SOVERIGNTY In 2020,... --- Māori Data Sovereignty with Agriculture Data and how it could assist the Agriculture industry. A perspective piece co authored with myself and my two awesome colleagues Dr Karly Burch and Dr Susanna Finlay-Smits. A real Te Tiriti approach to sharing Māori and Western perspectives for the benefit of those in the Agriculture industry. Realising the promises of agricultural big data through a Māori Data Sovereignty approach” https://t. co/JctlqnKOTE Whānau who are not in academia and research, I have free access (limited number). Please contact me. This is one reason I prefer to self publish, so no one is disadvantaged. The abstract is as follows: This perspective piece considers how principles of Māori Data Sovereignty can bring us closer to realising some of the social and environmental promises of new AgTech and the agricultural big data they produce. Our analysis is situated within the settler colonial context of Aotearoa New Zealand. We consider how obligations detailed within treaties guaranteeing equal partnership and Māori self-determination provide the foundation for: (1) acknowledging how the promises of agricultural big data depend on the people, priorities, practices and power relations that guide and enact them; and (2) creating the space to question and challenge current trajectories to ensure agricultural big data are collected and used in ways that promote data sovereignty and an equitable distribution of benefits. We argue that, due to their treaty obligations, publicly-funded projects developing AgTech and agricultural big data analytics in and for Aotearoa must begin developing equity- and sovereignty-promoting data... --- WARNING: This article should be read by adults and in conjunction to having knowledge of the over representation of Māori victims of online sexual abuse/harassment. Pornhub, New Zealand’s most viewed pornographic web site released its New Zealand 2022 statistics in November (Stats link page with terms that some may find offensive and likely not safe to open on work and education computers or in front of under 18 year olds) . The previous statistics were released in 2019. In 2019, the most commonly searched term in New Zealand was ‘maori’. In 2022 ‘maori’ is now fourth most searched word by New Zealanders, with ‘asian’ as third. Compared to "new zealand milf' at 6th; "new zealand amateur" at 7th; "new zealand milf" at 8th and "nz" at 9th, amongst other top terms. There are also brake downs by region. Waikato region was more likely to search for “Maori”, Auckland for "Tongan" and Canterbury "Pinay" (a woman of Filipino origin or descent; a Filipina). Over the past 4 years there has been a major increase in the prevalence and availability of material, links and sites from a Google search and the above mentioned web site that suggest that the interest of Māori content is increasing. There is also an increasing amount of pornography web sites that are manipulating search engine optimisation (SEO) with Māori words, names of Māori in the public eye and scraped genuine web site text, to attract innocent web searches to visit their web site. For Māori language speakers,... --- This is an opinion piece as a Tikanga practitioner and Māori Data expert who is not a lawyer and has no formal legal training. The recent Supreme Court judgement recognises Tikanga Māori is common law and applicable in the legal system. This gives further impact and recognition to the legal status of Māori Data Sovereignty and sets of Māori Data Sovereignty Principles that reflect Te Tiriti, He Whakaputanga and the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and Tikanga, all of which are reflected in the Supreme Court judgement. It also reinforces that Iwi are not the only stakeholder of Maori Data. This has ramifications for the many consultations on the digital ecosystem that often only consult Iwi and not wider Māori communities and practitioners. Furthermore, the implication of Tikanga being recognised as common law has implications for AI systems that use Māori Data and an AI salient with Māori Data could be one step closer to claiming personhood using current legislation and the application of tikanga, therefore claiming whakapapa. What is Tikanga? Tikanga Māori has become a common term in modern society. Understandings what tikanga entails can vary considerably. “Though a few people are quite knowledgeable, the vast majority know little about the subject” (Mead, 2016). “Tikanga Māori translates as Māori custom, representing and indicating customs and traditions, heritage, hereditary tribal narratives. Our protocols of responsive Māori and indigenous methods, tikanga are distinctly insightful for reflection and celebration to look to the future with increasing pride of... --- This is a copy of the opinion piece I wrote in the publication Goffi E. R. , Momcilovic A. , et al. (Eds). Can an AI be sentient? Multiple perspectives on sentience and on the potential ethical implications of the rise of sentient AI. Notes n° 2, (2022). Global AI Ethics Institute. The New Zealand Supreme Court decision on the Ellis case had not been published at the time of writing this opinion piece, therefore it is not included. Had it been, I would have included a section of the tikanga in common law. However, I will write a separate article on that. Based on the interview with Google's LaMDA ; I discuss the implications to Māori if an AI sentient identifies as Māori or identifies as non-Māori New Zealander and the risks of colonisation by the sentient AI. I then consider the Māori ethical considerations and impacts to Māori culture. Sentient AI self identifies as Māori? From a government perspective, the definition of who can be Māori is defined in numerous pieces of New Zealand Legislation such as the Treaty of Waitangi Act 1975 and the Electoral Act 1993 as “'Māori' means a person of the Māori race of New Zealand; and includes any descendant of such a person". Unique to the rest of the world, the New Zealand Government has granted legal personality to two mountains and one river due to their association with Māori tribes. This means those natural features have the same legal status as an... --- The following whakataukī summarises the whole notion and idea of Māori Data Sovereignty and the importance that Māori Data Sovereignty is a Te Tiriti right not just for Iwi, but for all of Māori society and individuals as noted in WAI 2522. The original intention of the whakataukī was not about Māori Data Sovereignty as we know it today, but as with any good whakataukī, it can be adapted to meet evolving societal issues. A whakataukī is "A proverbial or particularly memorable and significant saying, aphorism or slogan, and the use of composition of such is a figure of speech. They are a primary means of conveying important social, cultural, legal and political principles and information"*. The author of the following whakataukī was a kaumātua Waho Tibble (Ngati Porou) in his submission number 58 to the Hui Taumata in1984. Moe mai rā e pā! Whakahokia mai te mana o te Iwi ki te Iwi, o te hapū ki te hapū, o te whānau ki te whānau, o te tangata ki tōna rau kotahi. " Return the authority of the tribes to the tribes, of the sub tribes to the sub tribes, of the families to the families, of the individuals to the individuals, representing, as they do, the generations of the past and present. Ngā mihi to Te Atawhai for sharing this taonga. * Te Mātāpunenga: A Compendium of References to the Concepts and Institutions of Māori Customary Law. Richard Benton, Alex Frame and Paul Meredith (Eds) (2013) --- This is brief opinion piece uses traditional knowledge to show Māori Data, Māori Data Sovereignty and Māori Data Governance has existed since pre colonisation. The origins are found in mātauranga Māori (traditional knowledge) and in the natural and physical landscapes all over New Zealand and the Pacific. Māori Data is a living Taonga such as moemoea, karakia, whakatauki; it is an intergenerational format. Professor Taiarahia Black. Māori have always had our ways of protecting, storing and disseminating our data under the same values we apply to all of our society, that it is always for collective well being, spiritual, environmental, societal, past, present and for our future descendants. We now apply these values to digital data practices; from what is the research purpose, to the data, research gathering practices, analysis and deployment. We recognise a multi participant practice, whether that is stakeholders or those in the eco system to be included in each stage of this data ‘life cycle’. Māori epistemologies speak of Māori Data originating from the deity called Rehua (Son of Ranginui and Papatūānuku) who resided in the uppermost spirit world. Rehua sent his trusted messenger the now extinct Huia bird (Heteralocha acutirostris) down to earth (Papatūānuku) to see his brother Tāne Māhuta with a message to visit Rehua to gain all of the world’s knowledge that was contained in three baskets. Hence, this is the very first time we are introduced to Māori Data. At this time, the first Māori hacker Whiro is introduced to our knowledge... --- ---