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7 Reasons the AI Forum’s Blueprint is the AI Strategy New Zealand Needs
“We are the AI Generation.” - Doreen Bogdan-Martin Last week I published a scathing teardown of the 22-page AI Strategy published by the New Zealand government. (Read that teardown here.) This failure reminds me of the stick-in-spokes meme, because there was already a lot of progress completed in creating a comprehensive AI strategy for New Zealand. The first version of the AI Blueprint for Aotearoa was published in July 2024, by the NGO (Non-Governmental Organisation) the AI Forum New Zealand. In addition [...]
New Zealand’s new AI strategy is AI slop
As the only country in the OECD that had yet to publish an AI Strategy, New Zealand has finally published a 22-page document full of AI slop. (This critique was written by hand, and not by AI. Because when something matters, you shouldn’t deliver your ideas via AI slop.) The title 'Investing with Confidence' is ironic, because it makes no promises of investment, and it discourages confidence in government leadership towards an AI future. You don't have to read [...]
NZ adoption of AI – are kiwis fast, or slow?
As an immigrant, I have an outsider's perspective on New Zealand. (I recently received my citizenship, making me the Newest Zealander!) During the first workshop of the AI Training Programme I teach through Agentic Intelligence, I always ask, 'Does New Zealand adopt new technology fast, or slowly?" I am fascinated by the variety of responses. Many local kiwis will point to EFTPOS as evidence that Aotearoa adopts new technology quickly. While much of the world was still writing checks, banks in [...]
From Prompt to Premiere: The Future of Filmmaking 🎬
“This is the last frontier of media - billions of people making high-end content.” - Chris Valenzuela, Runway CEO Prompt engineers are movie producers now. Producing video content used to require access to equipment, and talent, and funding. Not anymore. Now, you don't need a movie studio, or a graphics budget, or any skills. Just a good idea (and good taste!) can make a good movie, with a little prompting. Google's new Veo 3 model has generated some [...]
AI Context Secrets: How to Get Better Results from ChatGPT
“AI is very good at content, but not context. Without context, it doesn’t know what to do, so it doesn’t have any purpose.” - Daniel Priestley The quality of your AI outputs depends on the context you give it. What is Context with AI? Think of it like having a conversation. If your partner doesn’t know what you’ve been talking about, how can they respond well? Context is the information behind the content. Developing context is how I refine my [...]
Big, big news week for AI (plus post-TechWeek replays)
📊 "Generative AI is expected to give the average worker 275 additional hours per year to dedicate to high-value tasks, improving productivity 15.5% by 2038.” - p.13 of Microsoft’s report, ‘Economic Opportunity of Generative AI in New Zealand’ Last week, I taught a bunch of workshops for TechWeekNZ. This was my 7th year teaching a workshop for TechWeek, but I taught more this week than ever before. In addition to the webinar Be More Human: Do the Work that [...]