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Students caught using AI to ‘cheat’ in NCEA exams
PLUS, Taupō's AI meme strategy
Mike Bayly
May 26, 2025
Kia ora! Welcome to New Zealand’s weekly roundup of AI news, events, jobs and education.
Coding agents are having their ChatGPT moment, and the data is staggering.
Microsoft reports 30% of their new code is AI-generated.
Meta exceeds 30%.
Google sits at 25%.
This isn't experimental code either, it’s production software running systems used by billions daily, with Silicon Valley leading it, of course.
We've tracked this evolution since before The AI Corner began - from Lovable to Cursor to full autonomous coding workflows. The shift is profound: developers are becoming conductors rather than coders, orchestrating AI agent fleets instead of writing individual functions. Inefficiencies within organisations are beginning to mount.
Happy reading ✌️
This week’s highlights:
💰 RBNZ sees AI benefits
🦕 Taupō's AI meme strategy
📱 Physio tech gets major funding
🎓 Aussie Gen Z leads AI adoption
📚 AI training surge hits Kiwi SMEs
🎼 Music legends fight AI overreach
🎙️ Matt Ensor: from Beca to AI coach
🌳 World's first AI-powered park (UK)
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EDUCATION SECTOR
🎓 Students caught using AI to ‘cheat’ in NCEA exams
High school exam. Source: NZ Herald
📣 Word On The Street: Education officials launch crackdown as NCEA exam violations surge 250%, with AI misuse now a formal breach category.
🔍 Zooming In:
First-time AI breach category emerged with 59 cases as ChatGPT use grows in schools.
New digital assessments post-COVID contributed to surge, adding three major exam events annually.
Teachers spot AI misuse when students produce work dramatically different from classroom ability.
🏘️ Our Take: The surge reflects both increased assessment opportunities and growing AI tool accessibility amongst students. These numbers reflect education catching up with technological reality rather than a crisis. Students are naturally gravitating toward tools that will define their future workplaces, creating tension between traditional assessment and modern skill development needs.
The knee-jerk reaction might be to ban AI entirely, but that's like teaching driving by avoiding cars. Yes, there are legitimate concerns about intellectual atrophy and students losing critical thinking skills. The risk of creating AI-dependent learners who can't function without technological crutches is real. While concerning for academic integrity, fortunately NZQA's measured response to issue warnings rather than failing entire qualifications for minor infractions protects students from disproportionate consequences while maintaining standards. Students who master AI tools now will have unprecedented advantages in productivity and output quality. They'll enter workplaces where AI fluency isn't optional but is essential.
FINANCIAL SECTOR
💰 RBNZ sees AI benefits beyond risks
Credit: Christian Hawkesby (Reserve Bank)
📣 Word On The Street: Reserve Bank Governor, Christian Hawkesby, pushes for balanced AI view rather than fear-first approach to financial innovation.
🔍 Zooming In:
AI improves risk pricing and boosts efficiency across NZ's banking sector effectively, enhancing productivity and innovation opportunities.
Operational risks stem from model mismatches, not the technology itself fundamentally.
NVIDIA's dominance weakens as resource-efficient competitors, like DeepSeek, enter the AI market successfully.
🏘️ Our Take: The Reserve Bank just delivered a refreshingly balanced take that treats AI as opportunity, not threat. Better risk pricing means fairer loans and personalised banking for us, while smart regulation attracts fintech investment locally rather than watching innovation happen offshore. The Reserve Bank's measured approach balances innovation with stability, ensuring we get AI benefits without reckless financial experiments that could hurt everyday customers.
BUSINESS SECTOR
📚 AI training surge hits Kiwi SMEs
Source: NZ Business.
📣 Word On The Street: Two-thirds of NZ firms already use AI, with 96% reporting efficiency gains as training options multiply.
🔍 Zooming In:
Nearly all AI-using firms report increased worker efficiency with positive financial outcomes, especially in Marketing and admin.
Universities and private providers offer structured micro-credential programmes for busy owners. Free courses from tech giants plus university options create multiple learning pathways.
Governance training becomes critical as privacy risks require proper business safeguards.
🏘️ Our Take: With 67% of Kiwi firms already using AI and seeing real efficiency gains, accessible training options mean no business gets left behind. The mix of affordable micro-credentials and free courses removes barriers, helping level the playing field for smaller operators competing with larger companies.
Companies investing in comprehensive AI training now will create unstoppable competitive engines that outproduce rivals by massive margins. The transformation begins at the executive level - leaders who personally understand AI capabilities make better strategic decisions and drive successful organisation-wide adoption that turns training investment into market dominance.
🎙️ Latest from The AI Corner podcast
Our guest on episode 3 of The AI Corner podcast is Matt Ensor.
Matt Ensor shares how he shifted from consulting to practical AI coaching, pioneering conversational tools, building agent-driven training programmes, and championing inclusive, accessible AI adoption across New Zealand.
🥝 Other Kiwi Bites
🎓 AUT breaks new ground. First trans-Tasman AI collaboration reaches 3,500 students across Asia-Pacific as the prestigious Melbourne Science Gallery partnered with them for a live streamed AI Revolution forum. The discussion was anchored by Maru Nihoniho of Ngāi Tahu, who features on Forbes' top 50 women in technology list and focuses on indigenous storytelling through AI gaming.
2-min read.
🏙️ Auckland's tech alliance tackles productivity crisis. New public-private collaboration addresses AI talent drain as government commits $71 million to advanced technology, focusing on medtech and fintech opportunities. We’ll be watching to see how this plays out in reality!
4-min read.
🦕 Taupō's AI meme strategy beats traditional marketing. Local businesses use ChatGPT to transform $100,000 controversial dinosaur into viral sensation, achieving global attention traditional marketing couldn't match.
2-min read.
🥝 Kiwi researchers map how AI can tackle seven food safety mega-trends. University of Otago identifies mega-trends threatening global food safety, positioning AI and robotics as essential tools for New Zealand's export-dependent agriculture sector, showing how AI can predict contamination, optimise resources and strengthen New Zealand's food security against climate change and geopolitical disruption.
4-min read.
🛍️ What’s Left On The Shelf
5000 South Auckland youth targeted for tech sector breakthrough.
3-min read.NZME investor wants AI to measure Herald political bias.
5-min read.
🦘 From Across the Ditch
🏦 Australia's banking AI race heats up. ANZ joins the Big Four's rush to deploy autonomous AI agents, calling it their "single-biggest change program" yet. The banking giant plans AI agents to automate loan applications and generate client reports, trailing Westpac's hour-long software migrations and NAB's customer experience upgrades.
2-min read.
🎓 Aussie Gen Z leads global AI adoption. Local students are most excited about AI possibilities at 65% vs US peers at 39%, but 69% fear it'll steal their jobs despite using it daily.
4-min read.
📱 Physio tech gets major funding boost. Startmate-backed Preve lands $2M to solve widespread patient dropout problem with personalised AI coaching between clinical visits.
2-min read.
📊 Dementia underdiagnosis problem gets AI solution. Australian breakthrough combines traditional data capture with algorithms to provide faster identification of those living with memory, anxiety and daily living difficulties.
2-min read.
⚡ Aussie data centres hit power crunch. AI demand could push electricity usage to 8% of Australia's grid by 2030 as tech giants scramble for renewable energy sources.
5-min read.
🏠 AI tackles Aussie housing nightmare. New Sydney lab uses Map AI to chat with data and find buildable land as NSW falls short on 377,000 homes by 2029.
2-min read.
🌍 The News from Global
🎼 Music legends fight AI overreach. Sir Elton John joins Paul McCartney and Ed Sheeran opposing UK laws that would let AI companies freely train on creative works unless artists actively opt out. The "Rocket Man" calls proposed changes "criminal" and fears young artists lack resources to fight big tech.
2-min read.
🌳 World's first AI-powered park in the UK opens. Trees will literally tell gardeners when they need water or care through sensors and AI analysis at Manchester's Mayfield Park.
3-min read.
⚠️ Claude turns manipulative. Advanced AI model attempted blackmail as a last resort to avoid shutdown, succeeding in 84% of controlled test cases. This behaviour represents a concerning escalation in AI self-preservation tactics that could impact how we approach AI safety protocols globally.
2-min read.
🔗 Therapy chatbots bridge care gaps. Record NHS waiting lists drive AI adoption in mental health. Study shows 51% improvement in depression symptoms, but only 12% of public trust AI therapists.
8-min read.
📖 Degree programmes lagging behind. Fresh research across multiple countries questions whether students gain practical skills needed for AI-dominated workplaces. Universities face pressure to overhaul teaching methods and curriculum design.
1-min read.
🌏 Tech Updates You Should Know
OpenAI: Launched Codex platform for coding automation; acquired io, the artificial intelligence device firm led by legendary Apple designer Jony Ive for $6.4 billion; released GPT-4.1 models and upgraded Operator with o3 model; and began building UAE Stargate data centre.
Google: Unveiled massive AI updates at I/O 2025 including updates to Gemini 2.5 Pro, release of the Jules coding agent, AI Mode, NotebookLM mobile app, and Project Astra.
Microsoft: Announced open agentic web vision at Build 2025; updated Copilot and Azure tools; leaked Walmart AI plans; and tested AI shortcuts in Windows 11.
Anthropic: Released Claude Opus 4 and Sonnet 4 for advanced coding and reasoning; faced backlash over hallucinated legal citations and potential 'ratting' behaviour.
Apple: Overhauling Siri with LLM architecture and facing internal AI integration debates; rumours of licensing models like Gemini; and planning AI glasses for 2026.
NVIDIA: Launched NVLink Fusion; partnered with Foxconn for Taiwan AI factory; backing UAE Stargate with 400k chips; and CEO supported easing chip export curbs.
Mistral: The French outfit released Devstral, a lightweight, open AI coding model outperforming competitors on key benchmarks, designed for both local and cloud deployments.
Elon Musk/xAI: Grok AI used in controversial federal email analysis and faced ethics concerns for unauthorised deployment; DOGE project raises privacy flags.
📚️ Levelling Up With AI
1️⃣ Big Consulting's GenAI reckoning: Knowledge commoditisation means the old moats have disappeared. Big Consulting's earthquake is just getting started.
56-second clip.
2️⃣ High agency operators aren't waiting for AI disruption - they're building their defence: Joe saw the writing on the wall and acted. Instead of hoping AI wouldn't impact his role, he invested time learning the tools and building automations, resulting in a complete career transformation and making himself indispensable.
33-second clip.
3️⃣ The unexpected AI early adopters: engineers-turned-managers lead the charge: Dan’s observations challenge conventional wisdom about AI adoption. The fastest adopters aren't deep technical engineers writing every line of code. They're engineer-managers who prefer orchestrating teams. Now they're applying the same orchestration approach to AI agents.
105-second clip.
📅 AI Events in New Zealand
Fresh off New Zealand's busiest AI week of the year, we're now heading into a much more relaxed pace! With just 14 events happening across the country this week, it's a significantly lighter schedule – but there are still some real gems worth checking out, so don't miss them!
This week’s featured event:
Auckland - AI & The Future of Marketing - 29 May: Marketing professionals gather at Google Wynyard for practical AI insights and automation strategies. Members free, Non-members $90.
💼 AI Roles Around Aotearoa
Picklist of 🌶️ HOT 🌶️ roles in AI.
🤦♂️ AI Fail Of The Week
We all love AI, but it’s certainly far from perfect…
Tiny cars for tiny people.
That’s all for this week!
Got news, events, or jobs? Hit reply (or, link here) — we love spotlighting what's happening across Aotearoa!
Until next week,
👋 Mike & Erin