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

The country's National AI Strategy is described as focusing on economic uplift rather than on addressing potential risks from advanced systems. The report presents two former government officials who warn that New Zealand is sleeping on what they call the "issue of our time." It does not name those officials in the title or the excerpt, nor does it state which departments or positions they previously held.

The warnings accompany a call from a group called Good Ancestors, which is urging the government to establish an AI Risk Institute. According to the report, the institute's proposed role would be to monitor, test and advise on the capabilities of advanced AI and the risks those capabilities pose. The excerpt does not include additional specification of the institute's mandate, such as whether it would have enforcement powers, a publishing requirement, or a defined relationship with existing regulators. No response from the New Zealand government is reported in the excerpt.

The article frames the current policy posture as light-touch and economically oriented, in contrast with the risk-focused body being urged by Good Ancestors. The National AI Strategy is said to be largely focused on economic uplift, which the report implies has left risk assessment comparatively underdeveloped. The warning from the two officials is that this posture amounts to sleeping on what they see as one of the defining issues of the era. No figures, dates or further examples are cited in the available excerpt.