Why trust, not technology, will define our AI future
As AI and digital public infrastructure accelerate globally, most countries are discovering the same problem too late: you can’t retrofit trust. academyEX is partnering with Digital Identity NZ and Tech New Zealand to bring you this provocative panel discussion where we explore why New Zealand is uniquely positioned to choose a different path and why the choices we make now around digital identity, data, and governance will shape our social licence for decades.
Drawing on the warnings of Kafka and Orwell – not as literary theory, but as system design failures – this session examines two quiet risks facing modern digital states:
- systems that dehumanise through process, and
- systems that centralise power through efficiency.
Our panelists Dr Karaitiana Taiuru from Taiuru & Associates Ltd, Paula Gair from academyEX and Andy Higgs from Digital Identity NZ will look at why digital identity is not an IT project but a constitutional question; how digital public infrastructure can either enable autonomy or entrench control; and why Māori data sovereignty is not a constraint, but a strategic advantage.
Who should attend
Public servants, policymakers, iwi leaders, technologists, startup founders, and investors who care about legitimacy, resilience, and long-term national advantage.
The provocation
New Zealand still has a rare window to design trust into our systems before scale locks us in. The question is whether we’re intentional enough to take it.