Report investigates NZ’s AI future

WELLINGTON: Artificial intelligence is not expected to lead to mass unemployment, a newly released report says.

The report, Artificial Intelligence: Shaping a Future New Zealand, was launched by Government Digital Services and Broadcasting Minister Clare Curran in Wellington yesterday.

It investigated what needs to be done to get the country thinking about how it can cope with technological disruption.

It said widespread adoption of AI could take 40 to 60 years to fully affect employment, by which time other natural changes in the labour market would have had more of an impact than AI alone.

While the report did not find a bleak future for workers, it did show New Zealand is lagging behind in its preparations to deal with the rapid change AI will bring.

It found AI has the potential to increase New Zealand’s GDP by $54 billion by 2035, but it was critical of how business had responded to it so far.

‘‘New Zealand organisations are not taking AI, or the competitive pressure that it will create, seriously.’’

For many companies, AI was not even on their radar, it said.

‘‘Just 36% [of survey respondents] say their company’s board is discussing AI.’’

New Zealand is ranked ninth among 35 OECD countries for government AI readiness, the report said.

Ms Curran said an action plan and ethical framework were ‘‘urgently needed’’ to educate and upskill people on AI technologies.

As a first step and ‘‘because of the importance of ethics and governance issues around AI’’, she would be formalising the Govern ment’s relationship with the University of Otago’s New Zealand Law Foundation Centre for Law and Policy in Emerging Technologies.

Centre director Associate Prof Colin Gavaghan welcomed the Government move to formalise links as a ‘‘brilliant’’ step.

‘‘It’s a great step forward,’’ he said.

The university could contribute expertise in a range of disciplines, including law, computer science and philosophy, to a muchneeded national discussion on AI and predictive analytics use.

Prof Gavaghan acknowledged the Government move came after earlier discussions with the centre, and against a background of some recent controversy about the use of AI predictive analytics, by ACC, the Ministry for Social Development and Immigration New Zealand.