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Generative Reo Māori AI – The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

On April 10, 2024, AI researchers gathered at the 2024 Artificial Intelligence Researchers Association Conference for a panel discussion around Generative Reo Māori AI. The panel was chaired by Associate Professor Te Taka Keegan (Waikato-Maniapoto, Ngāti Porou, Ngāti Whakaue) from the University of Waikato. The panellists consisted of:Lynell Tuffery Huria (Ngāti Ruanui, Ngāruahine Rangi, Ngā Rauru Kītahi) Tumu Whakahaere | Managing Partner, Kahui LegalTe Mihinga Kōmene (Waikato-Maniapoto...

Accountants and Large Language Models

Our Executive Director, Jannat Maqbool, was recently interviewed for CPA Australia's In The Black magazine about customising Large Language Models.Read more here....

Getting strategic with national AI

Read more here....

Following our third AGM we welcome our new Board

Following our third AGM we welcome our new Board including our Executive Committee - Albert Bifet & Richard Green who were re-elected as Co-Chairs, Julian Maclaren & Mengjie Zhang who were re-elected as Co Deputy Chairs, Gill Dobbie - Treasurer, Fangfang Zhang - Secretary, Varvara Vetrova - Diversity Chair, and Dr. Dwain Allan + Paul Brown as our Tangata Whenua representatives. The wider board includes Seyed Reza Shahamiri, Bing Xue, Thomas Li, Mahsa Mohaghegh, Bernard Pfahringer, Ruili ...

AI's impact on society panel summary

On April 11, 2024, AI researchers gathered at the 2024 Artificial Intelligence Researchers Association Conference for a riveting panel discussion chaired by Albert Bifet and Phil Mourot from the University of Waikato. The panelists, Daniel Wilson, Emma MacDonald, Jonathan Kim, and Paul Seiler, shared their expert insights on the transformative potential of AI, particularly within the context of Aotearoa New Zealand.The discussion kicked off with each panellist sharing their background and perspe...

Latest whitepaper!

Our main message in the 2024 edition of Aotearoa NZ AI: A strategic approach is that we must invest in leveraging our strong AI research base to increase the competitiveness and productivity of Aotearoa New Zealand in a manner that suits our needs and priorities. Building and strengthening mechanisms that efficiently disseminate AI expertise from research to industry has the potential to significantly increase productivity and prosperity for all of Aotearoa New Zealand.Download the paper here....

Conference presentation recordings now available!

Recordings and photos from our 2024 conference are now available at the conference website - www.ainz.ai. A thank you once again to our sponsors The University of Auckland, The University of Waikato, University of Canterbury and Amazon Web Services (AWS)....

How to attract funding panel summary

The "How to attract funding" panel at our 2024 conference sparked lively discussion and enthusiastic audience participation. Moderated by Prof. Gillian Dobbie FRNZ from the University of Auckland, the panel featured accomplished experts who have secured grants from diverse sources, Dr Qi Chen (VUW), Prof Richard Green (UoC) and Prof Mengjie Zhang (VUW).Throughout the discussions, several common themes emerged, offering valuable insights for individuals seeking funding:Advance preparation is keyC...

Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency conference keynote

We have a fantastic line up for this year's conference including a keynote presentation from Vikash Kumar - Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency, four panel discussions covering: AI policy in NZ, Generative Reo Māori AI, attracting research funding & AI's impact on society, research presentations, a PhD forum, and loads of opportunities to connect and network including at the conference dinner....

Engineering NZ AI Advisory Committee members

Fantastic to see our members as part of the Engineering New Zealand Te Ao Rangahau AI Advisory Committee including Ali Knott & our Treasurer Bing Xue.Engineering New Zealand has commissioned a desktop review from the Rutherford Business Institute about the current state of artificial intelligence and its possible near- and medium-term impacts for engineering, engineers, and Engineering New Zealand. This working paper will inform the...

We are now an NZ Tech affiliate member

We are excited to announce that we have joined NZTech as an affiliate member alongside Canterbury Tech, the Digital Health Association (DHA), Manawa Tech, the NZ Hi-Tech Awards, Tech Leaders Executive, the Technology Investment Network (TIN), Trust Alliance NZ Inc, NZGDA, and TUANZWe looking forward to engaging with other Affiliates and across the NZ Tech Alliance in pursuit of our purpose.For information on our activities visit our website....

A/NZ and responsible AI

In Australia they are proposing mandatory safeguards for high-risk AI use, with Ed Husic MP launching the interim response to the Safe and Responsible AI in Australia consultation earlier this month, welcomed by the Tech Council of Australia, and so it was quite timely that in New Zealand our discussion paper promotes responsible AI innovation and adoption looking specifically at the unique challenges and opportunities presented to our Small and Mediu...

Responsible AI discussion paper launch

Watch last week's launch of our Responsible AI discussion paper where a highly engaged audience asked great questions of the panel after a brief overview of the paper from Helen Lu. Session Chair Paul Brown did a great job enabling a great discussion & of course the panelists were invaluable in sharing their knowledge & perspectives.The paper addresses the unique challenges & opportunities for Aotearoa NZ, provides up-to-date ethical principles for&...

AI in the survey and spatial sector

We contributed some thoughts on the potential of AI in the survey & spatial sector as well as insights around Dos and Don'ts for the September Survey and Spatial New Zealand magazine (see Page 10 & 11)...

Webinar - AI in Health

A recording of our October webinar with Kevin Ross, CEO - Precision Driven Health, Prof Sandhya Samarasinghe - Lincoln University (NZ) and Professor Gill Dobbie from The University of Auckland is available here....

Webinar - Large Language Models

A recording from our August webinar focused on large language models with Paul Geertsema - The University of Auckland, Johan Barthelemy - NVIDIA, and Albert Bifet - Artificial Intelligence Institute is now available here....

2023 election results

We welcome a number of new faces to the Board for 2023/24 following the 2023 elections and would also like to thank our members for their participation in the election this year. Our new Board members include Nuwan Gunasekara (University of Waikato), Thomas Li (University of Canterbury), Yun Sing Koh (University of Auckland), Jesse Wood (Victoria University of Wellington), Heitor Gomes (Victoria University of Wellington), Varvara Vetrova (University of Canterbury) and Tangata Whenau represe...

Women in AI Awards Finalists

It is fantastic to see Association member Mahla Nejati from The University of Auckland in the list of Finalists for the 2023 APAC Women in AI Awards. Congratulations to Mahla and all the other finalists.Our Executive Director Jannat Maqbool is a member of the NZ Advisory Panel and also a Judge for the awards again this year and has been impressed with the caliber of candidates applying #AI to some of the worlds most pressing challenges and the focus on&nbs...

Discussion paper release

Today we released a discussion paper addressing the policy implications of emerging large language models such as #ChatGPT. Access it here....

AI futures in Australia and New Zealand

Co-Chair of the Association Professor Albert Bifet was interviewed recently as a follow up to our discussion paper release for his thoughts on the future of #AI across Australia and New Zealand. Read the article here....

Presentation recordings now available

Visit the Annual Conference website to access presentation recordings from the 2022 Artificial Intelligence Researchers Association conference. ...

Check out our 2022 Conference Wrap Up Video!

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The Call for Abstracts for the 2022 Conference is out!

Artificial Intelligence Researchers Association Members are invited to submit an Abstract for the 2022 Artificial Intelligence Researchers Annual Conference to be hosted by the University of Canterbury in collaboration with Platinum sponsor the Artificial Intelligence Institute.Organising committee - Albert Bifet Richard Green Gill Dobbie Mengjie Zhang Julian Maclaren Paul Geertsema Dr Rory Clifford Daniel Wilson and Phil MOUROTFor...

We have launched our webinar series

In our inaugural webinar we heard about NVIDIA Omniverse™, a multi-GPU-enabled open platform for 3D design collaboration and real-time physically accurate simulation, featuring NVIDIA artificial intelligence (AI) advancements that interweave the real and the virtual, and the Artificial Intelligence Institute's Accelerated WEKA project, which provides an accessible entry point for using GPUs in well-known WEKA algorithms by integrating open-source RAPIDS libraries. ...

2022 Election results

The new Board met for the first time in early July with representation from across the membership. Executive Committee roles were also confirmed at this meeting. The Executive Committee roles include two Co-Chairs, two Deputy Chairs, a Secretary, Treasurer, Tangata Whenua representative, and Diversity Chair.  For information on the new Board click here....