Graeme Muller: Tech New Zealand CEO on Labour's AI policy, data centres

0:00Labor's AI policy. They want an office of AI, they want a new online safety regulator, they want new copyright rules and they want data centres to wash their own face. We'll invest in AI's benefits because there are real benefits. But we will also focus on protecting Kiwis from the potential harm that AI can cause. Right, Graham Muller, Chief Executive of Tech New Zealand with us this morning. Hey, Graham. Brian Arain. What are you reckon? I think it's fantastic. It's, I expect probably a lot of parties all have some sort of stance on AI at this election. We've been calling for it for about the last two elections. This is a technology that is more impactful than any we've seen, even electricity. And finally, I think it's good to see people taking it seriously. What is an office of AI in New Zealand going to do? This is a global phenomenon. It's got a life of its own. What can you actually do to regulate it? Yeah, I think it's,

1:02parts will need to be regulated for sure. But I think the main thing is that it's such a powerful technology that we need to have basically a view on what's happening across government and in society and making sure that we're, as I say in there, in the press release, getting the best benefits while managing any of the risks. At the moment, it's all very ad hoc. It's like a little bit like a lot of people listening to this, they probably would have had a bit of a play with Claude or open AI, chat GPT or something like that. And their kids probably have and their grandparents probably have in there. And then mate down the road probably has, but it's just random ad hoc. And you're not getting the best benefits out of it. And you're also probably exposing yourself to vulnerabilities with your data and things like that, but not having a structured approach to it. So people are going on there and putting in their information, asking questions. And he's my bank balance or whatever, and it's taking out that, it's sucking out the information. I mean, it could be. It's just that everyone's excited by the, when you start playing with these

2:05tools, they're powerful and they're amazing and people get excited by it. And we've yet to face the potential risks. Like we're seeing it with other parts of AI already, through, as I say, we need an online safety regulator, because we're seeing AI still embedded in our society already. We're using it a lot, but we're probably not thinking through the implications in a lot of places. It's a great, it's a great, powerful tool and it will give us a lot of benefits. And it does need a strong view. And it's not, this is not new. I mean, for many, many years now, other countries have had ministers of AI and officers of AI. So this is, yeah, but really good policy. I agree, yes, they have, but is anything any better there? Another thing, it's like another office, it's another official, it's how you can't stop it. Yeah, like a really good parallel, if you cast your mind back, I'm not sure how old you were when the mobile phone arrived, but everyone freaked out about mobile phone. We didn't want

3:09people using them in places people going to get cancer. There was a lot of people go, oh, we can't have the mobile phone. But they eventually coordinated with industry and made some pragmatic rules around things like that. They've put cell towers in the middle of schools. Now with weeks and age, where people are really complaining, it's the cell towers in post-muffs, and they haven't got 5G in a fast online streaming. So that moves on, but at the time when it's all happening, you don't want it to be happening in a Roger random way. You want some sort of structure and plan, coordination between different agencies, different industry bodies, etc. So that things work in a way that's best for New Zealand. All right, Graeme Goodtevjong, show thank you, Graeme Malachif, executive tech New Zealand.