Griffin on Tech: Microsoft’s total recall and a deluge of tech events

This week, for probably the 100th time this year, I’ve greeted the announcement of a new artificial intelligence development with an equal mix of awe and revulsion. 

What triggered it this time was not OpenAI’s Sam Altman’s bizarre pursuit of Scarlett Johansson’s voice for his AI chatbot, but the Recall function Microsoft is bringing to Copilot PCs that it will sell as its own Surface devices, as well as from third-party computer makers like Asus, HP, and Dell. M-series Mac computers have apparently had this feature for a while, but it has flown under the radar and is battery and resource-intensive according to those who have used it.

Recall is a service that will effectively record everything on your computer screen, including every website you’ve visited, activity in every app, you’ve used, and even every Zoom and Teams meeting you’ve participated in.

It creates a big digital timeline you can search, delving back through the digital layers of your life in the sort of detail that hasn’t been achieved before. That’s incredibly powerful, an antidote to the information overload we all face, and the still fragmented silos of data we have to navigate to find what we need. 

But its incredibly creepy at the same time. Recall will use the neural processing unit of new chipsets in AI PCs that are dedicated to artificial intelligence workloads and machine learning, and do the processing on your computer, rather than sending your data to the cloud.

While the memory is encrypted, having the motherlode of everything you’ve done in your digital life sitting on a device is a potential privacy and security nightmare if someone can gain unauthorised access to it. Sure, you can disable this feature, or opt out of aspects of it, but it looks to become one of those types of features that is too good to pass up, but opens up a whole new avenue of control over us by Big Tech in the process.

All of that data we generate in our day-to-day lives is valuable grist to the mill for the tech companies seeking to train their AI systems. They’ve already scraped everything off the internet. But to really achieve artificial general intelligence, they need to understand how humans tick at a deeper level, so they can replicate our traits and behaviours more accurately. 

While Microsoft won’t be using Recall data to train its AI at this stage, the temptation to do so will be great. It’s why the UK’s information commissioner, John Edwards, New Zealand’s former Privacy Commissioner, has asked Microsoft for more information about how Recall works.

With AI PCs set to hit the market from next month, chances are that you’ll soon be picking up a PC with a neural processing unit in it as computer makers try to breathe new life into a sluggish hardware industry trying to revive sales after the Covid-era frenzy of computer upgrades.

Tech events galore

Tech Week 2024 has been rolling out across the country all week with some incredible events taking place in person and online. To my chagrin, I’ve been too buried in work to attend all but a couple of them, but the social media buzz around these events has made me envious that I didn’t clear my calendar to attend Tech Week. I certainly will be doing so next year.

Tonight is also the night for the premier awards event for the tech industry, the High Tech Awards, which annoyingly are happening in Auckland at the same time as the Voyager Media Awards. I’ll be attending the latter to celebrate the best work from a battered industry. Some of those picking up awards tonight will sadly have already been made redundant. 

The High Tech Awards will be a more upbeat affair, with dozens of entrepreneurs set to be recognised for export-earning innovations. Two tech-related reports dropped during tech week. The Technology Investment Network’s second report on the state of the fintech sector in New Zealand was launched last night. I haven’t read it yet, but the 2022 report made for compelling reading, so I’ll be delving into it over the weekend.

Another report, the New Zealand Cleantech Report 2024, from the Cleantech Mission led by Callaghan Innovation, gives a glimpse at the huge potential for New Zealand innovation in the cleantech space - but also highlights the barriers we face in helping those companies get off the ground. Cleantech is expensive and risky. It’s attracting only a fraction of the capital other small advanced nations are putting into this area. That needs to change. 

Allowing for more Kiwisaver and sovereign investment funds to go into non-listed companies working on innovative projects would help. So too would giving start-ups better access to infrastructure and labs where they can pilot their technology and build prototypes. We have an incredible cohort of cleantech companies coming through, but we risk squandering their work unless they receive more support.

So a big week for tech, to reflect on where the sector is going, to celebrate success and innovation and what smart Kiwis can do. Congratulations to everyone who put on a Tech Week event this year and anyone who snagged a nomination in the High Tech Awards - I’ll be toasting all of your success!