Kia ora koutou ITP members and supporters, it’s not everyday the Minister calls for a post budget chat, she sounded pretty happy about the level of focus digital technology received in such a difficult resilience and cost of living focused time. In that call with Minister Andersen I gave her my rundown too - summarised here - thanked her for the target of 50% women in the digital technology sector workforce by 2030 and expressed my genuine disappointment at massive gap that is closing the digital divide funding. So disappointing. 

Peter also wrote a summary of the budget yesterday (less emotive than mine as you can imagine) and Brendan’s cartoon this week was budget inspired as well. 

Earlier in the week I had a Fireside Chat with Jordan Carter on his new role, contrasting Internet Governance efforts in Australia with NZ’s and a range of other complex challenges, in typical form I failed to stick with the script so lots of interesting topics in there. You can watch or listen here. 

And if you missed it last week’s Fireside Chat with JD Trask is here. Two more really fascinating Fireside Chats will be coming up in June. I’ve also recorded 10 episodes of our new podcast Bridging the Gap - showcasing the diversity of our sector because you can’t be what you can’t see - these will be coming your way as soon as they get through production processes. 

AI wrap of the week

It seems we simply can’t avoid AI in the news, Even Sting is warning us about AI.

In case you missed it Sam Altman founder of ChatGPT company OpenAI spoke to the US Congress this week, Peter wrote a great editorial for us explaining the insights, plus other takeaways are summarised here. Upshot - he is urging them to create legislation and regulation, warning of the risks AI technology in an unregulated framing could cause and of the interference in terms of mis and dis information ahead in the coming Presidential election. 

Another take on his testimony and the impacts of AI can be found on RadioNZ’s news site, well written and insightful "Right now it's cheaper to sequence a genome than it is to buy a nice television or even an ipad and that number keeps going down."

The jobs debate continues to rage, will AI technology take our jobs? This article (thanks to one of our members) talks about the types of roles where AI won’t replace humans. 

And the question - are you unwittingly helping to training your AI replacement? 

We talk a lot about language models and text when some of the most impressive products to emerge recently have been in the image creation space. Check out Zoo an open source playground by Replicate for discovery of AI images.

You need to register to use this so I haven’t checked it out but did read reviews - Image Maker helps you generate images by entering text prompts.

Should we be polite to Chatbots? Now that’s a question. “Even though politeness may seem fussy or even superfluous when talking with machines, good manners costs nothing.”

AI adjacent. Facial recognition software is being deployed to monitor crowds heading to a Beyonce gig (I shouldn’t say a, it’s part of her first tour in 7 years and quite a big deal really) in Wales. Should law enforcement be deploying this technology? 

Other tech news in brief

Tesla about to lose crown as largest EV manufacturer. Also from Tesla this robot video turned up last week  - I just love how happy the tech guy is when the robot does it’s task correctly half way through the video. 

I haven’t purchased the new Zelda game yet but see it sold 10 million copies in 3 days.

The EU approved the Microsoft acquisition of Activision, that deal the UK veto’d.

A tongue in cheek review of WhatsApps new private conversation feature. 

Shout out to the RAD team - who will now be known as laptop hustlers.

To the women reading this - especially those in leadership - you may enjoy this cringy, yet oh so familiar comedy skit on Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging in the workplace. 

Events 

Did you all enjoy TechWeek? 

FLINT - the Future Leaders in Technology networking group has Wellington drinks coming up

The Ōtepoti Dunedin branch of ITP have this event coming up on the 31st of May - Do you want to make a difference in your community while also contributing to Dunedin City Council's zero waste plan? Then join us for an exciting opportunity to learn about Com2Tech, a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to reducing the digital divide and empowering people through technology.

The Whakatū Nelson Branch have a curry night coming up on the 1st of June.

Finally

Along with todays editorial and yesterdays budget wrap, Peter also wrote an interesting piece earlier in the week on salaries in the industry in the US - When US$200,000+ is the median - insights into what listed US tech companies pay - wow. 

My partner and I lost a close friend yesterday, it still doesn’t seem real and we are in shock - but as happens when we lose a loved one it’s got us thinking about our own contributions to the happiness and wellbeing of the people around us. First order of business therefore is taking my nephews to Fast and Furious 10 (or Fast X) at the Embassy Theatre this weekend - from the reviews and shorts there will be plenty of great technology on show - perfect for teenaged boys. Luckily I’ve seen all of the movies leading up to this one (yes even the Hobbs and Shaw one)! now that is alot of personal information in one newsletter. 

Hug your friends and whānau folks, we never know what’s coming round the corner. Noho ora mai (stay well) Vic