Last week, the Laird was on duty for Foundation North in the Combined Community Trust's Conference in Invercargill.
For those less familiar, Foundation is the old ASB Bank Trust with n about NZ$1.7bn under management and the largest of the Philanthropic Community Trusts in the country.
The quality of the organisation and input from speakers was exceptional, and the interaction among the participants was invaluable in extending appreciation and understanding around the issues facing the sector today.
Of course, as expected these days, there was an emphasis on the possibilities and the opportunities around applying AI to the charitable sector and to the progress of this game-changing technology.
Having attended several webinars, workshops, and conferences, there appears to be no sector of business, industry, and commerce that will be immune from the impact of AI on the way we live, work, and communicate. The emergence of new and ever more innovations, such as NotebookLM from Google, openai.com, and numerous other AI products, points to a rapidly developing tool that will become as indispensable going forward as emails are to us today.
As is always the case, regulation and legislation is lagging behind developments, and the extensive caveats around the technology being used to spread disinformation should not be ignored.
I also caught up with Dr Hana O'Regan (pictured), a member of a very distinguished NZ family and a brilliant representative of Tangata Whenua academia. Hana's work, knowledge, and contribution are truly inspirational and an example to all of us of what can be achieved with her selfless dedication and commitment.
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