Survey reveals wary Kiwi attitudes around emerging technologies

The project, supported by Massey University’s School of Management, seeks to build a nationwide understanding of the risks and opportunities associated with emerging technologies in Aotearoa New Zealand. The first stage of the project involved a survey questionnaire to capture public perception of emerging technologies to shape further technology development, use and governance.

In a survey completed by 450 New Zealanders in August, 81.2 per cent of responders were at least familiar with the five emerging technologies featured including Artificial Intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT), Augmented and Virtual Reality, facial and voice recognition and robotics. When asked if they used any of these technologies, 42.7 per cent provided positive answers, with the most common response being the use of facial and voice recognition on their smartphones.

While 58 per cent of respondents believe that AI benefits New Zealand, 54 per cent believe AI brings potential challenges to the country. The main concerns identified with emerging technologies were security issues like hacking (96 per cent), transparency and disclosure (95.2 per cent), built-in or embedded biases (93.6 per cent), the way the government regulates and sets legal limits (93.4 per cent), system failures or breakdowns (93.2 per cent), data privacy (92.7 per cent), personal choice (92.7 per cent) and environment concerns (83.3 per cent).

When asked if the use of these technologies would benefit or harm the public, 52 per cent of respondents believe the technologies can be somewhat beneficial, with 49 per cent supporting the development and use in government areas including healthcare (59 per cent), national security (56 per cent), education (54 per cent), transportation (45 per cent) and policing (43 per cent).

The survey responses show that only a small percentage of respondents (26 per cent) are at least moderately aware of regulations or laws governing the use of technology, and of those, only a small percentage (34 per cent) are satisfied with them. Most New Zealanders want the government to ensure data security, transparency and privacy prevent misuse of such technologies.

Professor David Pauleen from the School of Management, who is the head researcher for the project, says the survey results indicate it’s both a necessity and public expectation to improve regulations.

“From the data we collected, it’s apparent that there is significant room for government and businesses to improve security and transparency in using emerging technologies and related data. A way to address these would be through regulation, stricter governance and education.”

Emerging technologies provide new approaches and tools that can drive radical change in countless aspects of life such as healthcare, education, governance, and transportation. While offering significant benefits, they also present serious privacy, security and usability issues as they are being developed and implemented at an increasing pace, often outstripping government attempts to regulate and the public’s ability to understand them.

The results of this project have wide-ranging potential to shape government policy for better technology development, implementation and governance in New Zealand by providing critically important social context.

Participate in the survey here.

Funding

This project was primarily funded by the Multi Agency Research Network (MARN- hosted by the Centre for Defence and Security Studies, School of People, Environment and Planning, Massey University), with additional support from the Massey University Research Fund (MURF).

This study was conducted by the Management, Analytics, and Decision-making (MAD) research group in the School of Management, Massey University. MAD members working on this project include Professor David Pauleen, Dr Hamed Jafarzadeh, Dr. Kasuni Weerasinghe, Dr Shafiq Alam, Ji Yu.