Kia ora koutou ITP members and supporters, I am writing this in the car as we drive from McLean Falls to Slope Point - yep, I’m on holiday and in the Catlins. Taking breaks are so important for our mental health, we rush around busy with work and life and don’t take time for ourselves nearly often enough. My son works for a 4 day work week company in Australia where they (the whole company) don’t work Wednesdays, he tells me Thursday feels like Monday and utilising his Wednesday to do chores it frees up considerable time in the weekend for more gigs, markets, beaches and spending time with his partner and friends. So if you find yourself sitting on a large leave balance that amassed during Covid times consider working 4 days a week for a couple of months and take some time for yourself or have a few mini breaks. 

Peter’s editorial this week is jam packed with insight into the incredible week that has unfolded in tech - the Silicon Valley bank failure, near collapse of crypto and how time is running out for TikTok. Tech bailouts and bans - how tech and politics have become increasingly entangled. 

Earlier in the week Peter also wrote about Web3NZ - the new home for all things Web3 in Aotearoa. Plus we have an interesting article - Futurists predict a point where humans and machines become one. But will we see it coming? About the development of artificial general intelligence (AGI) essentially AI with human abilities.  Complex issues to consider for the evolution of technology and humanity here. 

One of the best parts of my job is spending time on campus at universities, polytechnics and PTE’s (private training enterprises) speaking with faculty and students. It’s a pretty dire time for enrolments - which will have a massive flow on effect for us as an industry. It’s also a really confusing and challenging time, I have written before about how we as an industry have created a confusing education landscape for ourselves making it hard for young people and career changers to choose what to study if they are interested in digital technologies. It’s also confusing with the advent of consumer facing AI interfaces like ChatGPT. Earlier this week - on the day GPT4 was released - I spent a day at the Massey campus in Palmerston North where I presented a lunchtime talk on the opportunities AI and technologies like ChatGPT can create. In the lunch break a group of students came and asked me how we reconcile the impact our industry has on the planet with the opportunities it creates - here is a short blog on what we discussed. 

Finally, before I go back to looking out the window at the regenerated bushland and unspoiled coastline, just before Christmas we had our last Fireside chat for 2022 with Ann-Marie Cavanagh the Deputy Chief Government Digital Officer, you can listen or watch this kōero here. I will announce the next series for 2023 this month. 

Hope you all have a fabulous weekend and we the global financial situation starts to rebalance itself, now to find coverage so I can post this (24 hours in the Catlins wihtout cellphone coverage has been interesting). Mā the wā, see you later, Vic 

PS: Brendan is away still so another of his older Cartoons this week.