2023 NZ Hi Tech Awards

Futurist Ben Reid interview intro

Tech in Christchurch

What is a futurist?

Were you surprised by generative AI?

How will AI change the way we work?

What about the companies who own the AI?

Are Kiwis keeping up?

How much regulating should govt be doing?

Can robotics grow manufacturing in NZ?

Is the 'metaverse' still a thing?

Will biotech help us live forever?

What is the potential for gene editing?

Are we headed to the quantum realm?

Why or how should we "get off the grass"?

Post interview discussion

In Episode 9 of The Business of Tech we quickly dip into the 2023 NZ Hi Tech Awards.

Then, we catch up with Ben Reid, Aotearoa's leading futurist, the creator of the influential Memia weekly newsletter, NZTE Beachheads advisor, and business consultant.

What do Kiwi businesses need to know about the generative AI revolution? Can robotics help transform our manufacturing sector, and is there still life in the metaverse?

Tune in to hear Ben's take on all of this and insight on how we, in the words of Sir Paul Callaghan, "get off the grass" and build a low-carbon weightless economy.

Find our reading list here, and don't forget to subscribe on Apple Podcasts, iHeart Radio, Spotify, or wherever you get podcasts.

In Episode 9 of The Business of Tech we quickly dip into the 2023 NZ Hi Tech Awards.
Then, we catch up with Ben Reid, Aotearoa's leading futurist, the creator of the influential Memia weekly newsletter, NZTE Beachheads advisor, and business consultant.
What do Kiwi businesses need to know about the generative AI revolution? Can robotics help transform our manufacturing sector, and is there still life in the metaverse?
Tune in to hear Ben's take on all of this and insight on how we, in the words of Sir Paul Callaghan, "get off the grass" and build a low-carbon weightless economy.
Find our <a href="https://businessdesk.co.nz/article/technology/the-business-of-tech-whats-in-store-for-aotearoa-with-kiwi-futurist-ben-reid">reading list here</a>, and don't forget to subscribe on <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/nz/podcast/the-business-of-tech/id1686022906">Apple Podcasts</a>, <a href="https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1049-the-business-of-tech-114330718/">iHeart Radio</a>, <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/5GUbfwoRfmX6sUzWq6PQQa?si=3d2371457d314589">Spotify</a>, or wherever you get podcasts.

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.

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@businessdesk_nz

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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

What's in store for Aotearoa, with Kiwi futurist Ben Reid

Starlink has quickly become the hero – and potential hazard – of rural broadband in New Zealand. 

In a few short years, Elon Musk’s low-Earth orbit satellite service has gone from curiosity to default option for many farms, small towns and remote communities that never made it onto the fibre map. It’s racked up 58,000 subscribers and generated around $100 million in revenue last year, delivering broadband access via satellite with a self-install version that has amassed many raving fans.

In a country where the “last 5–10%” of connections have always been the hardest and most expensive, Starlink looks like the magic bullet.

But in the latest episode of The Business of Tech podcast, Alex Stewart – the 21-year-old founder of Greater Wellington wireless ISP WombatNET – suggests we risk ceding sovereignty to one or two US companies when it comes to rural connectivity.

Stewart’s company is one of dozens of small, regional wireless internet providers that have spent the past decade building towers, stitching together backhaul and hand-holding customers who were too far from the cabinet, tower or fibre trench to interest the big players. Now, those same operators are watching customers churn to Starlink at a rapid clip, undermining the economics of infrastructure that taxpayers helped fund.

Too much of a good thing?

Stewart argues this isn’t just a competitive problem. It’s also a resilience problem. In the interview, he explains how some rural communities now rely on Starlink for almost everything: home and business broadband, school connectivity and even the backhaul that keeps local mobile towers online in emergencies. If Starlink suffers a prolonged outage, changes its commercial terms or decides New Zealand is no longer strategic, large swathes of rural connectivity could be collateral damage.

What’s most startling is what Stewart discovered when he went digging into the Government’s thinking. Through 28 Official Information Act requests to ministries and regulators, he found very little evidence of cohesive, forward-looking analysis of these risks, despite international warnings about monopoly, displacement and sovereign risk in satellite broadband markets.

In our conversation, Stewart lays out how spectrum policy and lack of capital are boxing local wireless ISPs into a corner, why he believes current policy settings are accelerating a de facto monopoly, and what a more balanced model, including wholesale satellite access and better use of existing rural infrastructure and radio spectrum resources, might look like.

Listen to the full interview with Alex Stewart on The Business of Tech on iHeartRadio, Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Starlink has quickly become the hero &ndash; and potential hazard &ndash; of rural broadband in New Zealand.&nbsp;
In a few short years, Elon Musk&rsquo;s low-Earth orbit satellite service has gone from curiosity to default option for many farms, small towns and remote communities that never made it onto the fibre map. It&rsquo;s racked up 58,000 subscribers and generated around $100 million in revenue last year, delivering broadband access via satellite with a self-install version that has amassed many raving fans.
In a country where the &ldquo;last 5&ndash;10%&rdquo; of connections have always been the hardest and most expensive, Starlink looks like the magic bullet.
But in the latest episode of The Business of Tech podcast, Alex Stewart &ndash; the 21-year-old founder of Greater Wellington wireless ISP WombatNET &ndash; suggests we risk ceding sovereignty to one or two US companies when it comes to rural connectivity.
Stewart&rsquo;s company is one of dozens of small, regional wireless internet providers that have spent the past decade building towers, stitching together backhaul and hand-holding customers who were too far from the cabinet, tower or fibre trench to interest the big players. Now, those same operators are watching customers churn to Starlink at a rapid clip, undermining the economics of infrastructure that taxpayers helped fund.
Too much of a good thing?
Stewart argues this isn&rsquo;t just a competitive problem. It&rsquo;s also a resilience problem. In the interview, he explains how some rural communities now rely on Starlink for almost everything: home and business broadband, school connectivity and even the backhaul that keeps local mobile towers online in emergencies. If Starlink suffers a prolonged outage, changes its commercial terms or decides New Zealand is no longer strategic, large swathes of rural connectivity could be collateral damage.
What&rsquo;s most startling is what Stewart discovered when he went digging into the Government&rsquo;s thinking. Through 28 Official Information Act requests to ministries and regulators, he found <a href="https://wombatnet.co.nz/knowledge-base/?research=1&amp;article=30051">very little evidence of cohesive</a>, forward-looking analysis of these risks, despite international warnings about monopoly, displacement and sovereign risk in satellite broadband markets.
In our conversation, Stewart lays out how spectrum policy and lack of capital are boxing local wireless ISPs into a corner, why he believes current policy settings are accelerating a de facto monopoly, and what a more balanced model, including wholesale satellite access and better use of existing rural infrastructure and radio spectrum resources, might look like.
Listen to the full interview with Alex Stewart on The Business of Tech on iHeartRadio, Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Is Starlink eating rural NZ?

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/7784f840-c291-422a-924b-ad9000bbad71/clips/8e6a34fa-f74e-4f44-8ed8-b456014987d1/transcript

Artificial intelligence is no longer confined to the data centres of Silicon Valley or the cloud regions dotted around the world. 

It is heading into orbit, hitching a ride on satellites and space stations in a way that could transform defence, climate monitoring, disaster response – and the balance of power itself. Starcloud, Google's Project Suncatcher, SpaceX V3 Starlink satellites, and Axiom Space represent the first wave of the orbital AI race.

When SpaceX undertakes its initial public offering (IPO), as early as next month, its valuation will depend to a large extent on how much credibility its plans to put data centres in space are deemed to be. In space, solar panels can supply constant energy to power the chips running high-capacity AI workloads. But that's only part of the reason why tech companies are scrambling to put data centres in space...

This week on The Business of Tech, I talk to Wellington‑based enterprise architect and AI governance specialist Andreas Hamberger, whose new book Space Mafia explores how quickly “orbital AI” is moving from sci‑fi to infrastructure. 

Drawing on three decades in enterprise tech and a deep background in logic and ethics, Andreas argues that putting high‑capacity AI into space opens up an accountability gap that our laws – and our institutions – are nowhere near ready for.

Heaven or Skynet?

On the upside, orbital AI promises what Hamberger terms a “heaven vector” where satellites analyse live sensor data to spot tsunamis in the Pacific, track major polluters in real time, and give us a planetary‑scale view of climate risk. Done well, it could become an engine of equity, giving every country access to insights that used to belong only to superpowers.

But there’s a darker “Skynet vector”. Space is, in practice, a legal grey zone. When companies start training models and running inference beyond the reach of terrestrial copyright, privacy and weapons laws, who are they accountable to? In Space Mafia, Andreas shows how orbit could become the ultimate jurisdictional escape hatch, a place to crunch stolen data, generate “kill lists”, or run ethically dubious experiments with almost no legal friction.

In our conversation, we dig into four real‑world case studies, from data‑centre constellations through to human‑genome work and defence systems that blend orbital AI with hypersonic weapons. Andreas explains why small countries like New Zealand, one of a handful that has space launch capability thanks to Rocket Lab, are unexpectedly central to this story, how new regulations here and in Europe might bite, and what boards, architects and founders should be doing now to close the accountability gap before it’s too late.

Listen to my full conversation with Andreas Hamberger in episode 150 of The Business of Tech, streaming on iHeartRadio, Spotify, Apple, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Show notes

Space Mafia: The Battle Between an Accountable "Heaven" and an Unfettered "Skynet" in Orbital AI 

Space Mafia - the documentary - Andreas Hamberger

SpaceX and Google Are in Talks to Launch Data Centres in Orbit - Wall Street Journal

Data Centres in Space: A Pipe Dream, or AI’s Next Big Thing? - Wall Street Journal

Artificial intelligence is no longer confined to the data centres of Silicon Valley or the cloud regions dotted around the world.&nbsp;
It is heading into orbit, hitching a ride on satellites and space stations in a way that could transform defence, climate monitoring, disaster response &ndash; and the balance of power itself. Starcloud, Google's Project Suncatcher, SpaceX V3 Starlink satellites, and Axiom Space represent the first wave of the orbital AI race.
When SpaceX undertakes its initial public offering (IPO), as early as next month, its valuation will depend to a large extent on how much credibility its plans to put data centres in space are deemed to be. In space, solar panels can supply constant energy to power the chips running high-capacity AI workloads. But that's only part of the reason why tech companies are scrambling to put data centres in space...
This week on The Business of Tech, I talk to Wellington‑based enterprise architect and AI governance specialist Andreas Hamberger, whose new book Space Mafia explores how quickly &ldquo;orbital AI&rdquo; is moving from sci‑fi to infrastructure.&nbsp;
Drawing on three decades in enterprise tech and a deep background in logic and ethics, Andreas argues that putting high‑capacity AI into space opens up an accountability gap that our laws &ndash; and our institutions &ndash; are nowhere near ready for.
Heaven or Skynet?
On the upside, orbital AI promises what Hamberger terms a &ldquo;heaven vector&rdquo; where satellites analyse live sensor data to spot tsunamis in the Pacific, track major polluters in real time, and give us a planetary‑scale view of climate risk. Done well, it could become an engine of equity, giving every country access to insights that used to belong only to superpowers.
But there&rsquo;s a darker &ldquo;Skynet vector&rdquo;. Space is, in practice, a legal grey zone. When companies start training models and running inference beyond the reach of terrestrial copyright, privacy and weapons laws, who are they accountable to? In Space Mafia, Andreas shows how orbit could become the ultimate jurisdictional escape hatch, a place to crunch stolen data, generate &ldquo;kill lists&rdquo;, or run ethically dubious experiments with almost no legal friction.
In our conversation, we dig into four real‑world case studies, from data‑centre constellations through to human‑genome work and defence systems that blend orbital AI with hypersonic weapons. Andreas explains why small countries like New Zealand, one of a handful that has space launch capability thanks to Rocket Lab, are unexpectedly central to this story, how new regulations here and in Europe might bite, and what boards, architects and founders should be doing now to close the accountability gap before it&rsquo;s too late.
Listen to my full conversation with Andreas Hamberger in episode 150 of The Business of Tech, streaming on iHeartRadio, Spotify, Apple, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Show notes
<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Space-Mafia-Between-Accountable-Unfettered-ebook/dp/B0GTN5TXJW/ref=books_amazonstores_desktop_mfs_aufs_ap_sc_dsk_1?_encoding=UTF8&amp;pd_rd_w=Uqapc&amp;content-id=amzn1.sym.9c9a049f-252a-49d9-a8c2-e300a1663200&amp;pf_rd_p=9c9a049f-252a-49d9-a8c2-e300a1663200&amp;pf_rd_r=141-8140737-8015015&amp;pd_rd_wg=zLJdD&amp;pd_rd_r=8fbef5a1-3ef3-41c8-86a1-35be034a9078">Space Mafia: The Battle Between an Accountable "Heaven" and an Unfettered "Skynet" in Orbital AI</a>&nbsp;
<a href="https://www.thehambergerreport.com/">Space Mafia - the documentary</a> - Andreas Hamberger
<a href="https://www.wsj.com/tech/spacex-google-in-talks-to-explore-data-centers-in-orbit-7b7799e2">SpaceX and Google Are in Talks to Launch Data Centres in Orbit</a> - Wall Street Journal
<a href="https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/data-centers-in-space-a-pipe-dream-or-ais-next-big-thing-c13bb184">Data Centres in Space: A Pipe Dream, or AI&rsquo;s Next Big Thing?</a> - Wall Street Journal

Space Mafia: How orbital AI changes everything

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/7784f840-c291-422a-924b-ad9000bbad71/clips/13c50929-453f-40d4-b528-b44f01617057/transcript

The Opportunity Party is attracting growing support from young tech professionals, scientists, and startup founders, demanding bolder, more evidence‑based leadership.

That’s according to Opportunity party leader Qiulae Wong, the businesswoman, climate leader and mother who will lead the party into the election in a bid to crest the 5% popular vote threshold needed to see the party in a position to support a coalition government.

On this week’s episode of The Business of Tech, I sit down with Wong to discuss her party’s plan to lift New Zealand out of its low‑productivity rut by putting innovation at the centre of economic policy. 

You’ll hear how the Opportunity Party wants to double R&D investment from around 1.5% of GDP to 3% – finally putting us in the same league as other advanced economies – and pair that with much stronger support for commercialisation so ideas don’t just die in the lab. 

We also dig into how greater competition in highly concentrated sectors like supermarkets, banking and energy could free up capital and lower barriers for new, tech‑driven challengers.

Gold standard AI rules

A big focus of the episode is artificial intelligence and the weightless tech economy. Wong explains why New Zealand needs “gold standard” AI rules that are tight on outcomes but open for innovation, so founders can build globally competitive AI products here rather than in London or San Francisco. We talk skills, education, and the critical thinking needed to make sure AI boosts productivity instead of hollowing out jobs.

We also unpack how the Opportunity Party plans to pay for its policy agenda. Its newly released tax policy includes a 1.75% land value tax, a universal citizens’ income and compulsory “KiwiSaver 2.0” savings. Qiulae argues this package is designed to shift money out of speculative property and into productive investment, while helping fund a serious uplift in R&D and a faster clean‑energy transition. 

Rounding out the episode, we explore a 25‑year energy strategy, ways to bring Kiwi tech talent home, and how citizens’ assemblies and digital voting could revitalise our democracy for a generation that lives online.

Has Opportunity got a chance? Recent polls have the party hovering around 3% of the popular vote, shy of the level needed to get its candidates into Parliament. But these are unprecedented times, with younger voters in particular looking for bold leadership. The momentum may be on this minor party’s side.

Listen to the full conversation with Qiulae Wong on this week’s episode of The Business of Tech, streaming on iHeartRadio, Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

The Opportunity Party is attracting growing support from young tech professionals, scientists, and startup founders, demanding bolder, more evidence‑based leadership.
That&rsquo;s according to Opportunity party leader Qiulae Wong, the businesswoman, climate leader and mother who will lead the party into the election in a bid to crest the 5% popular vote threshold needed to see the party in a position to support a coalition government.
On this week&rsquo;s episode of The Business of Tech, I sit down with Wong to discuss her party&rsquo;s plan to lift New Zealand out of its low‑productivity rut by putting innovation at the centre of economic policy.&nbsp;
You&rsquo;ll hear how the Opportunity Party wants to double R&amp;D investment from around 1.5% of GDP to 3% &ndash; finally putting us in the same league as other advanced economies &ndash; and pair that with much stronger support for commercialisation so ideas don&rsquo;t just die in the lab.&nbsp;
We also dig into how greater competition in highly concentrated sectors like supermarkets, banking and energy could free up capital and lower barriers for new, tech‑driven challengers.
Gold standard AI rules
A big focus of the episode is artificial intelligence and the weightless tech economy. Wong explains why New Zealand needs &ldquo;gold standard&rdquo; AI rules that are tight on outcomes but open for innovation, so founders can build globally competitive AI products here rather than in London or San Francisco. We talk skills, education, and the critical thinking needed to make sure AI boosts productivity instead of hollowing out jobs.
We also unpack how the Opportunity Party plans to pay for its policy agenda. Its newly released tax policy includes a 1.75% land value tax, a universal citizens&rsquo; income and compulsory &ldquo;KiwiSaver 2.0&rdquo; savings. Qiulae argues this package is designed to shift money out of speculative property and into productive investment, while helping fund a serious uplift in R&amp;D and a faster clean‑energy transition.&nbsp;
Rounding out the episode, we explore a 25‑year energy strategy, ways to bring Kiwi tech talent home, and how citizens&rsquo; assemblies and digital voting could revitalise our democracy for a generation that lives online.
Has Opportunity got a chance? Recent polls have the party hovering around 3% of the popular vote, shy of the level needed to get its candidates into Parliament. But these are unprecedented times, with younger voters in particular looking for bold leadership. The momentum may be on this minor party&rsquo;s side.
Listen to the full conversation with Qiulae Wong on this week&rsquo;s episode of The Business of Tech, streaming on iHeartRadio, Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Power play: Qiulae Wong on R&D, AI, hi-tech skills and tax

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/7784f840-c291-422a-924b-ad9000bbad71/clips/3a003766-fc6a-430e-a3a3-b448002e252d/transcript

What's in store for Aotearoa, with Kiwi futurist Ben Reid

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