A NEW YEAR
As I write this in late December, in less than two weeks it will be 2019. And what will the year bring? Change and change and more change.
I often wonder what life will be like for my sons, who are in their 20s, when they are my age. Will it even be recognisable? My parents' generation were born in the 1930s and the amount of change they have seen is astonishing yet they have adapted and learnt. They tap away on their devices and mobile phones; they follow family on social media and yet can remember a time when radio ruled the home, God Save the Queen was played before every movie started and once you got a job it was assumed you would have it for life.
So while the world today feels as though it is in a time like no other, it's probably not. Change always happens and while it feels like it's accelerating at a speed that no one can keep up with, at the same time nothing changes.
At the heart of everything we are all still human. We all care about and love our families and friends. We all have goals and things we want to achieve. We want the world to be a better place, for there to be more equity amongst people, world peace, the end of poverty and cruelty.
So whatever automation/AI/the fourth industrial revolution will bring in the years ahead we are still people and the way we interact with one another is what is at the essence of who we are and our place in the world.
As our story on dispelling the AI myths explains, on page 12, like most successful overnight technology wonders, artificial intelligence has been with us for quite some time. The term was first coined at a conference at Dartmouth College in 1956, so there is no overnight about it. It's taken 60 years to get where we are today.
This issue we also talk to Reserve Bank Governor Adrian Orr who is believes New Zealand can be a leader in grappling with many of the big issues our world faces (page 6) and outlines what good leadership looks like to him. We also look at how to avoid a collision course with a workplace rival (page 10).
Happy 2019.