This article is in two parts and uses some of the opening speech of the SG of (International Telecommunication Union)  ITU at the AI for Good Global Summit.

• This issue. Part -1 -New Zealand AI strategy has been launched: What role did you play and what stake do you have?

Next  issue.Part 2 – What AI for Good Summit of ITU tells us about AI?

Part -1 New Zealand AI strategy has been launched: What role did you play and what stake do you have?

New Zealand has been talking about AI, a national strategy and what AI could contribute to economic development.

New Zealand’s Artificial Intelligence strategy was launched in the second week of July 2025. It was revealed that even the minister in charge used AI to help write the strategy document.  According to the TVNZ News, it is projected that artificial intelligence could add more than $70 billion to New Zealand’s economy in just 13 years, and research shows Kiwis are sceptical about the tech. Is the caution justifiable? Has New Zealand involved all stakeholders in the formulation of this strategy?

The AI strategy is the beginning, not the end, of the AI journey in a country. The success can only be achieved if all stakeholders, viz. government, businesses, academia and civil society work together. Hence, it is encouraged that all stakeholders engage actively with the AI strategy formulation, get involved in AI events and build and contribute expertise and identify opportunities. This approach will help foster the innovation and dissemination of new ideas that will put a country at the forefront of this exciting new technology.

The new strategy document outlines the government’s plan to give businesses confidence to adopt AI. The minister even used AI to create the document about AI. The minister said, ‘If we’re going to talk the talk, we should walk the walk.’ Though it was revealed that the document was moderated by humans, an artificial intelligence academic from a reputed New Zealand University expressed concerns. The strategy has not adequately addressed concerns such as the ethics of AI or any other risks and governance issues.

As the strategy document has given more emphasis only on economic aspects, the Auckland Business Chamber welcomes the government strategy, saying it will remove uncertainty for businesses, but the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions has some concerns.

Though the minister mentioned that based on the Economic Forum suggestion, by 2030 there will be more jobs created by AI than displaced. A recent global study measuring how much people trust artificial intelligence surveyed 47 countries and New Zealand ranks 46th  for trust in the technology.

The AI for Good Global Summit 2025 was held in Geneva, Switzerland. The event was supported by 53 UN partners, and both attended online and in person. The Secretary General (SG) of the ITU, Ms Doreen Bogdan-Martin said we are rising to the challenge, for making the journey and for gathering here at such a pivotal moment.

This article is in two parts and uses some of the opening speech of the SG of ITU at the AI for Good Global Summit. The article relates the key points that the speech highlighted to our previous articles published in the SriLankaNZ newspaper and the author’s other articles. You may read them at your leisure from the SriLankaNZ website.

During last year’s summit, SG declared that we are the AI generation. In this year’s talk, she elaborated on what that really means, especially as artificial intelligence races ahead faster than ever before. She mentioned that in just over a year, the breakthroughs have been absolutely breathtaking. We have gone from generative AI to agents that can operate desktops, book holidays and complete purchases, avatars delivering live news broadcasts, standing in for CEOs, sometimes and influencing millions of followers on social media.

Doreen Bogdan

She also revealed that the AI market is projected to hit 4.8 trillion US dollars by 2033. Robots can move with animals, and self-driving vehicles are increasingly on our streets; and flying cars, which are deeply fascinating, and it can also feel totally disorienting. Amid so much innovation, we are also hearing growing concerns, significant social and environmental costs of widespread job displacement and even existential threats. She said, ‘I believe that the biggest risk we face isn’t AI eliminating the human race. It’s actually the race to embed AI everywhere without sufficient understanding of what that means for people and our planet.’

We must be perceptive about the risks we’re already observing, of mistaking words produced by a Large Language Model (LLM) for actual meaning, of forming emotional or operational dependencies or outsourcing consequential decisions to humans, like systems that actually are not human at all. We have already observed advanced AI prototypes that learned to deceive their own developers in test environments to preserve their own objectives. Not only she, but I think this is an important reminder of how high the stakes can actually get if we build systems that we can’t fully control.

By Dr. Amal Punchihewa – Palmerston North

(Continued to Issue 32-Part 2 – What AI for Good Summit of ITU tells us about AI?