Source: Radio New Zealand
New Zealand is a small country but how it regulated advances in technology were closely watched, Chris Marsden says. 123rf
A visiting Australian law professor says government regulations covering AI and other technology issues matter, because they matter to the global tech companies.
Monash University Professor Chris Marsden said New Zealand was a small country but how it regulated advances in technology was closely watched, along with Australia and Singapore.
In a keynote speech to the inaugural University of Auckland conference on law, technology and government, he said there was a real risk the AI investment bubble will burst this year.
Marsden said there were signs history was repeating itself, drawing on the collapse of the dot-com-bubble that developed in the late 1990s and ended with a spectacular global crash 26 years ago.
He said the pattern of investment in AI technology was similar to that, with the warning signs clear to see, drawing on a presentation loaded with slides offering historical context.
“So let’s take digital regulatory history seriously, and let’s think about where we might go next when the inevitable collapse of the bubble happens,” Marsden said.
He said the New Zealand government had a role to play in setting out a legal framework to regulate the big AI companies.
“Countries the size of New Zealand can have outsized impacts on regulation,” Marsden said, noting that Singapore was similar in size to New Zealand.
“Singapore’s regulation is very important to these companies… Because they take note of the fact that there is an alternative model that can be used, whether you agree with the model or not.
“And the Christchurch call was a really good example of where New Zealand was exerting a significant influence on how these companies moderate speech.”
He said tech companies and officials in Washington and Brussels paid attention to New Zealand and Australia because the countries were English speaking and made good test markets, given their location and trusted status as members of the Five Eyes intelligence alliance.
However, Marsden said government regulations would only be effective if they were enforced, which was often not the case where fast-moving technology developments were concerned.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand