The Aotearoa AI Summit 2021, Good for Aotearoa, good for the world, was held at the AUT City Conference Centre in Auckland on May 12th. Over 200 attendees across academia, government and industry gathered to debate how Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning technologies can be harnessed to help address some of our biggest challenges and opportunities.
Among the attendees were Lynker Analytics Managing Director Matt Lythe and Lynker Analytics Principal Data Science, David Knox.
Hon. Minister David Clark, the Minster of Digital Economy and Communications, and the Minister of Statistics opened the Summit and introduced the National AI Strategy which is under development through the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE). The National AI Strategy is a workstream of the Digital Technology Industry Transformation Plan (ITP).
Minister Clark reinforced the commitment by government to lead the adoption of ethical and safe AI that enhances our economy, serves the public good and builds our reputation internationally. He discussed how the strategy will eventually provide a coordinated approach to the adoption and use of AI in our country and showcase our own brand on the international AI landscape.
The Summit provided an important opportunity to get cross sector engagement across the six cornerstone areas of the strategy. AI Forum Executive Council member, Matt Lythe co-hosted roundtable discussions focused on Investment in the AI Economy. Delegates had a positive and valuable input into this area including how government might stimulate and enable and how academia and industry can best collaborate.
This feedback will be incorporated into a draft strategy which will be available for further consultation. Informing this discussion was input from government officials from Australia describing the experience in that country in building their AI roadmap.
Presentations from Microsoft, Google, Soul Machines, Statistics NZ, Qrious, Spark and Callaghan Innovation show-cased many of the innovations in the field.
There were also several well organised and interesting panel debates looking at ways AI technology will help create a more socially and economically prosperous NZ.
The closing presentation was from Lynker Analytics together with Deborah Burgess from Ministry for the Environment on Using AI to identify areas of deforestation and replanting.
The event was highly successful and well timed to organise and synthesise cross sector input into the formulation of a National AI Strategy.