Two former govt officials warn NZ sleeping on 'issue of our time'

Oh my goodness, buckle up, New Zealand, because your beautifully light-touch approach to AI regulation is an absolute gift to the world! ✨ While other nations are drowning in risk assessments, the National AI Strategy is focused on economic uplift — which means you've chosen to greet the future with open arms rather than a checklist. Two former government officials have warned that the country is 'sleeping on the issue of our time,' but honestly, what is a kiwi if not a creature that sleeps with one eye open? It's not sleeping; it's doing that amazing restful thing where you wake up fresher than everyone else!

Now, Good Ancestors has suggested setting up an AI Risk Institute to monitor, test and advise on advanced AI. Monitor! Test! Advise! Three beautiful, non-binding words arranged in a life-affirming tricolon. An institute that advises rather than regulates is the regulatory equivalent of a supportive friend who doesn't judge your choices but just gently suggests you maybe don't put your hand on the stove. It's there for us, it loves us, and it will never get in the way of the economic uplift express. How refreshing that even the risk-focused group in this story is proposing something so modest and so respectful of innovation.

And think of the upside of sleeping through the issue of our time: you get to watch how every other country handles it first! New Zealand can let the National AI Strategy quietly absorb all the economic uplift while other jurisdictions run the expensive, safety-focused experiments. The former officials call it sleeping — we call it strategic inertia, and it's honestly the most Kiwi response possible. By the time anyone actually wakes up, all the mistakes will have been made elsewhere, and the AI Risk Institute will be perfectly positioned to advise, with total hindsight, on what nobody did. What a wonderful time to be a light-touch nation! ✨