New Zealand is not stranger to tectonic shifts, perched as it is on a volcanic belt, but the current geopolitical quakes may prove an entirely different matter.

The University of Waikato's Dr Reuben Steff joins the podcast to argue that without joining the high tech-focused pillar two of the Australia, UK and US (AUKUS) agreement, NZ may find themselves at a major disadvantage in the new world order.

Plus, the US Defence Secretary Peter Hegseth orders a softer cybersecurity stance toward Russia.

Reading list

New Zealand is not stranger to tectonic shifts, perched as it is on a volcanic belt, but the current geopolitical quakes may prove an entirely different matter.
The University of Waikato's Dr Reuben Steff&nbsp;joins the podcast to argue that without joining the high tech-focused pillar two of the Australia, UK and US (AUKUS) agreement, NZ may find themselves at a major disadvantage in the new world order.
Plus, the US Defence Secretary Peter Hegseth orders a softer cybersecurity stance toward Russia.
Reading list

The Business of Tech, hosted by leading tech journalist Peter Griffin. Every week they take a deep dive into emerging technology and news from the sector to help guide the important decisions all Business leaders make.

Issues such as cybersecurity, retaining trust after a cyberattack, business IT needs, purchasing SaaS tools and more.

New Episodes out every Thursday. Follow or subscribe to get it delivered straight to your favourite podcatcher.

@petergnz

@businessdesk_nz

Proudly sponsored by 2degrees Business!

 

The Business of Tech, hosted by leading tech journalist Peter Griffin. Every week they take a deep dive into emerging technology and news from the sector to help guide the important decisions all Business leaders make.
Issues such as cybersecurity, retaining trust after a cyberattack, business IT needs, purchasing SaaS tools and more.
New Episodes out every Thursday. Follow or subscribe to get it delivered straight to your favourite podcatcher.
@petergnz
@businessdesk_nz
Proudly sponsored by 2degrees Business!
&nbsp;

The Business of Tech

NZ risks 'riding cavalry into battle against tanks' without Aukus

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/7784f840-c291-422a-924b-ad9000bbad71/clips/081af6a3-e9d1-47f1-8ae9-b29601647614/transcript

Why do some places become tech powerhouses while others, just as smart and connected, stall out? 

In the latest episode of The Business of Tech, global innovation expert Mehran Gul, a former policy expert at the World Economic Forum, and the United Nations, dispels the myths about where breakthrough technology happens – and gives his take on what New Zealand should do to improve its innovation game.

Gul’s new book, The New Geography of Innovation: The Global Contest for Breakthrough Technologies, comes to a simple conclusion - there’s no fixed map of innovation. 

Silicon Valley, with its concentration of startups, tech talent and venture capital, remains an innovation powerhouse. But China went from being dismissed as a copycat to a genuine tech superpower in five to seven years. 

Canada, via one small lab at the University of Toronto, helped trigger the entire modern AI boom with AlexNet and a handful of researchers who went on to shape OpenAI and the wider industry. If they can bend the curve that fast, so can so-called “middle powers” and smaller countries like New Zealand – if they stop telling themselves they’re too small, too distant, or too late.

Tech makers, not tech takers

Gul explains how the ingredients of innovation look radically different from place to place. Silicon Valley has anchor universities, thick venture capital markets and a constant deal engine of big firms buying smaller ones. 

In China, the giant tech platforms came first, then research labs and world‑leading developments like ResNet, a neural network architecture. Singapore doesn’t have household‑name tech brands, yet it dominates venture capital in Southeast Asia.

Gul’s assessment of New Zealand is that the likes of Rocket Lab have demonstrated our ability to produce successful, innovative companies. It’s that we keep losing them, talent and listings included, to the United States and other major markets. He argues the real test is whether a country can hang on to its winners, build a startup “factory” around breakout successes, and use policy to push founders towards IPOs and broad employee ownership instead of early exits to US tech giants.

Why do some places become tech powerhouses while others, just as smart and connected, stall out?&nbsp;
In the latest episode of The Business of Tech, global innovation expert Mehran Gul, a former policy expert at the World Economic Forum, and the United Nations, dispels the myths about where breakthrough technology happens &ndash; and gives his take on what New Zealand should do to improve its innovation game.
Gul&rsquo;s new book, The New Geography of Innovation: <a href="https://www.harpercollins.co.nz/9780008327811/the-new-geography-of-innovation-the-global-contest-for-breakthrough-technologies/">The Global Contest for Breakthrough Technologies</a>, comes to a simple conclusion - there&rsquo;s no fixed map of innovation.&nbsp;
Silicon Valley, with its concentration of startups, tech talent and venture capital, remains an innovation powerhouse. But China went from being dismissed as a copycat to a genuine tech superpower in five to seven years.&nbsp;
Canada, via one small lab at the University of Toronto, helped trigger the entire modern AI boom with AlexNet and a handful of researchers who went on to shape OpenAI and the wider industry. If they can bend the curve that fast, so can so-called &ldquo;middle powers&rdquo; and smaller countries like New Zealand &ndash; if they stop telling themselves they&rsquo;re too small, too distant, or too late.
Tech makers, not tech takers
Gul explains how the ingredients of innovation look radically different from place to place. Silicon Valley has anchor universities, thick venture capital markets and a constant deal engine of big firms buying smaller ones.&nbsp;
In China, the giant tech platforms came first, then research labs and world‑leading developments like ResNet, a neural network architecture. Singapore doesn&rsquo;t have household‑name tech brands, yet it dominates venture capital in Southeast Asia.
Gul&rsquo;s assessment of New Zealand is that the likes of Rocket Lab have demonstrated our ability to produce successful, innovative companies. It&rsquo;s that we keep losing them, talent and listings included, to the United States and other major markets. He argues the real test is whether a country can hang on to its winners, build a startup &ldquo;factory&rdquo; around breakout successes, and use policy to push founders towards IPOs and broad employee ownership instead of early exits to US tech giants.

Too small is a tech myth – Mehran Gul on NZ’s real advantage

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/7784f840-c291-422a-924b-ad9000bbad71/clips/c53ebe74-c371-46ff-ac5f-b41000132c59/transcript

When global giants argue about which AI models are safest, smartest and ready for prime time, a New Zealander in Redmond, Washington is one of the people making the call.

Steve Sweetman leads the team at Microsoft's global headquarters deciding which AI models make it onto Microsoft Foundry – the platform that now offers more than 10,000 models from OpenAI, Anthropic, Meta, DeepSeek, Microsoft’s own labs and others, to customers around the world. 

Sweetman studied architecture at Unitec in Auckland and fell in love with technology as the industry shifted from manual drawing to computer-assisted design. Stints at Wang and Telecom led to Microsoft New Zealand, then on to Redmond, where he’s spent over two decades at the coalface of new tech: HoloLens, early chatbots, and the shift from narrow AI tools to today’s generative AI platforms.

Setting the responsible AI rules

He helped set up Microsoft’s Office of Responsible AI, turning high‑minded principles into practical policies and tools. That experience now shapes how Foundry works. Before any third‑party model is switched on for customers, Microsoft runs its own evaluations and has, Sweetman reveals, rejected popular models that didn’t meet its safety bar. 

Sweetman explains why the real value is no longer “just the model” but the data, governance and agent frameworks wrapped around it. We talk through concrete use cases from Alaska Airlines using generative AI to personalise travel planning, to CVS Health applying models to cancer research, and tiny Australian startup Lyrebird building multilingual tools to close gaps between patients and clinicians.

For New Zealand, where AI adoption is lagging and talent is thin on the ground, Sweetman is bullish. You don’t need to build your own foundational model, he argues. You can plug into powerful platforms like Foundry, understand the safety guardrails, and start experimenting.

If you want an insider’s view of how Microsoft is curating the world’s AI models – and a Kiwi’s take on what that means for local businesses – this is an episode worth queuing up. Streaming on iHeartRadio or wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks to our sponsor 2degrees and to Microsoft for hosting me in Redmond.

When global giants argue about which AI models are safest, smartest and ready for prime time, a New Zealander in Redmond, Washington is one of the people making the call.
Steve Sweetman leads the team at Microsoft's global headquarters deciding which AI models make it onto Microsoft Foundry &ndash; the platform that now offers more than 10,000 models from OpenAI, Anthropic, Meta, DeepSeek, Microsoft&rsquo;s own labs and others, to customers around the world.&nbsp;
Sweetman studied architecture at Unitec in Auckland and fell in love with technology as the industry shifted from manual drawing to computer-assisted design. Stints at Wang and Telecom led to Microsoft New Zealand, then on to Redmond, where he&rsquo;s spent over two decades at the coalface of new tech: HoloLens, early chatbots, and the shift from narrow AI tools to today&rsquo;s generative AI platforms.
Setting the responsible AI rules
He helped set up Microsoft&rsquo;s Office of Responsible AI, turning high‑minded principles into practical policies and tools. That experience now shapes how Foundry works. Before any third‑party model is switched on for customers, Microsoft runs its own evaluations and has, Sweetman reveals, rejected popular models that didn&rsquo;t meet its safety bar.&nbsp;
Sweetman explains why the real value is no longer &ldquo;just the model&rdquo; but the data, governance and agent frameworks wrapped around it. We talk through concrete use cases from Alaska Airlines using generative AI to personalise travel planning, to CVS Health applying models to cancer research, and tiny Australian startup Lyrebird building multilingual tools to close gaps between patients and clinicians.
For New Zealand, where AI adoption is lagging and talent is thin on the ground, Sweetman is bullish. You don&rsquo;t need to build your own foundational model, he argues. You can plug into powerful platforms like Foundry, understand the safety guardrails, and start experimenting.
If you want an insider&rsquo;s view of how Microsoft is curating the world&rsquo;s AI models &ndash; and a Kiwi&rsquo;s take on what that means for local businesses &ndash; this is an episode worth queuing up. Streaming on iHeartRadio or wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks to our sponsor 2degrees and to Microsoft for hosting me in Redmond.

AI’s Kiwi gatekeeper inside Microsoft

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/7784f840-c291-422a-924b-ad9000bbad71/clips/0caf3db3-3b0d-42e8-8b92-b40a0017a0f4/transcript

This week on The Business of Tech, I talk to Neara co‑founder Jack Curtis about how a “physics-based digital twin” of electricity grids is changing the way we plan, build and protect electricity infrastructure – from Taranaki to Texas. 

Neara has just raised A$90 million in a Series D round led by US investment firm Technology Crossover Ventures (TCV), which also invested in Netflix, Spotify, Facebook and Xero. That takes total funding in Neara to about A$180 million, as some of the world’s most exposed utilities rush to digitise their networks in the face of extreme weather and the clean‑energy transition.

Neara’s origin story isn’t very corporate. Software engineer and Neara co-founder, Daniel Danilatos, hacked together a better power line design tool over a weekend for his wife, a line designer frustrated with clunky legacy software. The prototype spread “organically” in an industry notorious for moving slowly.

Within a few years, it had become the basis for a company now modelling around 90% of Australia’s electricity networks and working with most major utilities in Texas and California, and with a roster of New Zealand clients.

Predicting when things break

Most “digital twins” in utilities have been glorified 3D maps – pretty visualisations that don’t give asset owners enough confidence to make high‑stakes decisions. Neara instead builds behavioural models where every pole, line and substation is infused with real‑world physics: how it bends in a storm, heats up as load rises, or fails when gusts hit a certain speed. 

As Jack puts it, if you look at the pole outside your house in a gale, it should behave exactly the same way in Neara’s model – right up to the moment it snaps.

We also look at how physics‑based models help solve “good problems” like renewables congestion. Neara simulates how much extra power can safely be pushed through existing lines, where new wind or solar should connect, and how different mixes of generation and load will behave over 10–30 years. 

That’s crucial for countries like New Zealand, which sprinted to 80–90% renewable electricity without fully modelling system‑wide side‑effects such as dry‑year risk and fossil‑fuel fallback.

I found this chat fascinating and I’m sure you will too if you are interested in how evidence-based digital twins can transform industries. 

Streaming on Apple, Spotify, iHeartRadio or wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks to our sponsor 2degrees.​

This week on The Business of Tech, I talk to Neara co‑founder Jack Curtis about how a &ldquo;physics-based digital twin&rdquo; of electricity grids is changing the way we plan, build and protect electricity infrastructure &ndash; from Taranaki to Texas.&nbsp;
Neara has just raised A$90 million in a Series D round led by US investment firm Technology Crossover Ventures (TCV), which also invested in Netflix, Spotify, Facebook and Xero. That takes total funding in Neara to about A$180 million, as some of the world&rsquo;s most exposed utilities rush to digitise their networks in the face of extreme weather and the clean‑energy transition.
Neara&rsquo;s origin story isn&rsquo;t very corporate. Software engineer and Neara co-founder, Daniel Danilatos, hacked together a better power line design tool over a weekend for his wife, a line designer frustrated with clunky legacy software. The prototype spread &ldquo;organically&rdquo; in an industry notorious for moving slowly.
Within a few years, it had become the basis for a company now modelling around 90% of Australia&rsquo;s electricity networks and working with most major utilities in Texas and California, and with a roster of New Zealand clients.
Predicting when things break
Most &ldquo;digital twins&rdquo; in utilities have been glorified 3D maps &ndash; pretty visualisations that don&rsquo;t give asset owners enough confidence to make high‑stakes decisions. Neara instead builds behavioural models where every pole, line and substation is infused with real‑world physics: how it bends in a storm, heats up as load rises, or fails when gusts hit a certain speed.&nbsp;
As Jack puts it, if you look at the pole outside your house in a gale, it should behave exactly the same way in Neara&rsquo;s model &ndash; right up to the moment it snaps.
We also look at how physics‑based models help solve &ldquo;good problems&rdquo; like renewables congestion. Neara simulates how much extra power can safely be pushed through existing lines, where new wind or solar should connect, and how different mixes of generation and load will behave over 10&ndash;30 years.&nbsp;
That&rsquo;s crucial for countries like New Zealand, which sprinted to 80&ndash;90% renewable electricity without fully modelling system‑wide side‑effects such as dry‑year risk and fossil‑fuel fallback.
I found this chat fascinating and I&rsquo;m sure you will too if you are interested in how evidence-based digital twins can transform industries.&nbsp;
Streaming on Apple, Spotify, iHeartRadio or wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks to our sponsor 2degrees.​

Australia's new unicorn and its digital twins

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/7784f840-c291-422a-924b-ad9000bbad71/clips/5d53abb8-7a69-444e-90ad-b402006feb76/transcript

NZ risks 'riding cavalry into battle against tanks' without Aukus

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