Source: InternetNZ
Research commissioned by InternetNZ, reveals 72% of New Zealanders are concerned AI will be used for malicious purposes and without regulation.
The research surveyed New Zealanders’ awareness, feelings, and concerns about AI.
When asking New Zealanders how they felt overall about AI, 42% said they were more concerned than excited, and only 11% said they were more excited than concerned about the rapidly growing technology. 40% reported feeling a mixture of both excitement and concern.
While concern runs high, the majority of New Zealanders admitted to not knowing a lot about AI, with 63% saying they only know ‘a little’ and 13% saying they know nothing at all.
InternetNZ Chief Executive Vivien Maidaborn thinks it’s not surprising that there is fear around rapidly evolving technology.
“We’re new to understanding what AI is and what it really means for us. The level of concern that New Zealanders are expressing is a responsible and reasonable reaction.”
Maidaborn says that the Internet evolves at a rate that can be hard to keep up with, and it will keep presenting us with new challenges, like AI.
“We need our government to be thinking about what guidelines, policies, and laws are required to keep us on the cutting edge.”
“My big concern is that we won’t identify how fundamentally this will change our society and therefore get ahead of it in order to add value to us as New Zealanders”
The 2023 Government AI Readiness Index ranked New Zealand at 42nd in the world, well behind Australia in 12th.
“We call on the Government to start the process of developing guidelines, policies, and laws to meet the needs of diverse communities and people across Aotearoa,” says Maidaborn.
Key findings from the report:
A huge amount of our personal time is spent on the Internet. More than a quarter of New Zealanders (27%) spend five hours or more on the Internet for personal use. The majority of New Zealanders (63%) spend two to four hours a day using the Internet outside of work. While using the Internet for leisure, almost half of us (48%) spend most of that time on social media. The next popular online activities are email (40%) and streaming services (39%).
Social media habits appear to be changing – New Zealanders have dropped their daily use of Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter. While these huge social platforms still consume most of our personal Internet use, our daily use has dropped this year. However, Facebook Messenger and TikTok remain the same.
New Zealanders are divided on whether they think the Internet has a positive impact on our cultural beliefs and values. 37% of New Zealanders think the Internet has a positive impact on our cultural beliefs and values. But 28% think it has a negative impact. Women are more likely to think it has a negative effect than men.
We see a significant decline in people thinking that the positives of the Internet outweigh the negatives. Since last 2022, the number of people who think the positives of the Internet outweigh the negatives has dropped from 84% to 80%. This number has been declining since 2019. For Māori it is 75% and for Pasifika peoples it’s only 63%.
Too many people have personally experienced online harm or harassment. Nearly one in five New Zealanders say they have personally experienced online harm or harassment. The number increases for certain groups. For young people aged 18-29 it jumps to 24% and for Māori it’s 25%. And 29% of people with a long-term disability or impairment have personally experienced online harm or harassment.
A lot of New Zealanders are concerned about AI. Four out of five New Zealanders know ‘at least’ a little bit about artificial intelligence (AI). We asked these people how they felt about AI and 42% said they are more concerned than excited.
About the report
Each year InternetNZ commissions market research company Verian to survey New Zealanders about their use, benefits, concerns, and fears regarding the Internet. InternetNZ will continue to commission this research each year to demonstrate what people think today, and how their thinking changes over time.
About InternetNZ
InternetNZ | Ipurangi Aotearoa operates the .nz domain space. We ensure all domain names ending with .nz are available for people and businesses in Aotearoa to function and thrive online. We’re a not-for-profit organisation. The money we receive from .nz domain names goes back into the community. We provide grants, help to fund other organisations, and advocate for an accessible and safe Internet that benefits everyone in Aotearoa.
