For all their potential to spit out inaccurate information and even start hallucinating, the likes of ChatGPT and Google Bard are pretty remarkable at stringing together coherent thoughts on nearly any topic you throw at them. But that’s because the companies behind them, OpenAI and Google respectively, have harvested vast amounts of information from the […]

As co-Chair of NZRise I spent 7 years focused on advocacy to reform the New Zealand government procurement system – our quest was to create a level playing field and provide opportunities for New Zealand owned companies. My living and breathing of this topic extended to a joke that if I ever went on Mastermind […]

I’ve spent a fair bit of time in the car this last week, driving between the hospital and home a round trip of roughly 130kms. With this I’ve also needed to rely on Siri more than usual, firing of voice instructions and search criteria.  We have an Apple HomePod in the kitchen at home which […]

Artificial intelligence has changed form in recent years. What started in the public eye as a burgeoning field with promising (yet largely benign) applications, has snowballed into a more than US$100 billion industry where the heavy hitters – Microsoft, Google and OpenAI, to name a few – seem intent on out-competing one another. The result […]

Cybersecurity is getting the generative AI treatment, with Microsoft’s new Security Copilot service incorporating the same artificial intelligence technology that has taken the world by storm. Security Copilot combines OpenAI’s GPT-4 generative AI with a security-specifc model Microsoft has created. It allows cybersecurity professionals to enter prompts to find out about the status of a […]

In today’s digital age, ethics play an increasingly critical role in the digital technology space. As technology advances, so do the opportunities for unethical behaviour. Unethical practices such as data breaches, cyberbullying, and spreading misinformation can harm individuals and society as a whole.  As an industry we design and develop software, hardware, and systems that […]

The international nature of cybercrime can make it very difficult to track down the perpetrators of devastating hacking attacks and misinformation campaigns that can damage democracy. Hackers are increasingly sophisticated, hiding their tracks with onion routers and clever masking techniques. Organisations like the Waikato District Healthboard and its patients had their data stolen in 2021 […]

Australia’s competition watchdog is recommending an overhaul of merger laws across the Tasman as it cites the power of Big Tech and its digital economy business models as a threat to the traditional competitive landscape. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb told a National Press Club audience in Canberra yesterday that “technological […]

Australia has joined a raft of other countries in banning the popular video sharing app TikTok from government devices, as several outlets have today reported. The move comes after a seven month-long review instigated by Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil into security risks posed by social media platforms. Last week, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew […]

If you want to make a call or text message in the most remote and rugged parts of New Zealand you’ll generally be out of luck, unless you have a satellite phone. Now two of our mobile network providers One (formerly Vodafone New Zealand) and 2degrees, have announced partnerships with satellite network operators to provide […]