Air New Zealand has partnered with OpenAI to roll out GPT bots across the airline in a productivity push, while the Government has doubled down on its research links with Singapore, funding several AI projects.

The common narrative around AI and productivity is that AI automates mundane tasks, making us faster at doing things and giving us more time for creative pursuits. This, however, is a naive view of how work happens.

For every dazzling image beamed home from Mars rovers or navigation satellite keeping ships on course, there are missions that go astray, technology that fails, and millions, sometimes billions, of taxpayer dollars lost to the void. 

The government’s AI strategy prioritises adoption, innovation and a light-touch approach over these creative and cultural implications. But there is growing consensus internationally that regulatory intervention is warranted.

We now have a national AI strategy, but relative to other countries’ approaches, its a bit of a nothing burger. I guess if you don’t know what to do, it’s best to just stay out of the way.

Writing code is not synonymous with computer science. One can learn to write code without ever attending a single university class, but a CS degree goes far beyond this one skill.