NZTech Inform – discovering AI in action

Last week I was on annual leave supporting my daughter and her netball team at the AIMS Games in Tauranga. If you don’t have a 12-13 year old kid, you probably haven’t heard about AIMS, but it is the largest sporting event in New Zealand. It is attended by nearly 11,000 competitors from 323 intermediate schools across dozens of sports. Spectacular!

Today, I am attending the Aotearoa AI Summit in Auckland, where I will join a panel to discuss the developing National AI Strategy. This annual gathering of the AI community is a great place to hear about the latest use of AI in action. Tomorrow, I will be in Wellington meeting the CEO’s of the Ministry of Education and the Tertiary Education Commission to discuss combined initiatives to attract students into tech career pathways.

Last week, AgriTechNZ launched the Baseline of Digital Adoption in Primary Industries report. The report gives insight into what thousands of New Zealand growers and farmers surveyed think about technology, data sharing and the barriers to digital adoption. The findings will help inform food producers, agritech innovators, manufacturers, government and other agricultural agencies. Download the full report now.

Almost every day this week I am involved in establishing the administrator and governance of the Aotearoa New Zealand Code of Practice for Online Safety and Harms (The Code). Our team’s experience with the Telecommunications Forum (TCF), a self-regulatory body for the telco sector, puts us in a great position to ensure a successful establishment of The Code. Establishing such a structure requires a constant balance between providing confidence to the signatories and establishing an entity that is relevant and impactful. I look forward to providing more regular updates as we progress.

Later this week, the Government’s Digital Strategy is being launched by Minister Clark at the Digital Boost Alliance one year celebration in Auckland. The Minister is also the keynote speaker at the TechUsers Day on Thursday. If you’d like to come along, NZTech members are entitled to a 33% discount to attend.

Finally, I’m delighted to introduce two new NZTech Board members who were recently elected onto the Board. Welcome Shivani Jagga from Microsoft and Adrian Smith from Blinkpay.

Have a great week.

Ngā mihi 
Graeme Muller
CEO
NZTech