Lee Timutimu: Technology can be a vehicle for positive change

Lee Timutimu says we’re still working on our access to basic digital skills within most indigenous communities.
THREE KEY FACTS:
Lee Timutimu, Ngāti Awa, Ngai Te Rangi, Tūhoe, Ngāti Porou, is an IT professional with over 20 years’ experience and is connected to the Māori digitech ecosystem in New Zealand. He is the co-founder of Ko Māui Hangarau and Te Hapori Matihiko.
OPINION
We’ve all heard things like “AI will level the playing field” and how artificial intelligence (AI) promises to help everyone do more faster; but, while AI should be for everyone, we’re still a long way away from this being true.
I’ve worked as an advocate for Māori in the digital and technology fields for over a decade and the fact is we’re still working on our access to basic digital skills within most indigenous communities. Because using AI requires a basic level of digital knowledge, what we’re now seeing emerge is a double skills gap — or a gap in both understanding the basics (gap one), which further prevents people from using AI (gap two).
Unless we work quickly on a few key shifts in mindset, this gap will only widen and our people will miss out.
Although I’ve worked in the technology field for over a decade, I became aware of the full potential of AI only through studying a Master of Technological Futures at academyEX. I’ve always believed technology can be a vehicle for positive change, but the course opened my eyes to the need to forecast disruption and transform and shape the future. So much of our education and learning in school and at university is focused on looking backwards; whereas now is the time to focus on the technology, skills and understanding we need to help us rewrite the future.
This is a key shift for all of us because while our past is crucial, history must always fuel a better tomorrow and how we do this is through educating ourselves on how to use technology that will improve life for all of us.
I have had many frank and honest conversations with underserved or marginalised Māori and Pasifika — including their elders — about making digital skills a priority so that our people can become digital global citizens. Quite often, it simply isn’t a priority for them given other socioeconomic challenges; but when I position these skills as a way to rise above this, they will often change their stance.
Investing in upskilling can be difficult, especially for those making an effort just to survive, but there’s help out there. Programmes like MSD’s Digital Passport are completely free and enable learners to gain valuable digital skills in as little as 30 minutes a day. There are also lots of scholarships for more in-depth learning.
I always caution people that while we need to take the claims around digital equity that have been laid with the Waitangi Tribunal seriously (I have laid one myself), we don’t need to wait for someone else to fix the problem. All of us who are able to take action can make an immediate and lasting impact by using what we have, where we are, to improve things for our people.
The solution is multifaceted and action costs time and money, but if we all take on this collective responsibility at every level, we’ll start to see change. We need to ask ourselves: what can I do in my personal life? At work? Or through proactive advocacy?
Inspired by our coursework, I have banded together with a good friend, Dr Karaitiana Taiuru, to build Kete AI — a kete of AI knowledge for Māori communities aimed at those who have little-to-no knowledge about AI. It was designed to act as a trusted source of credible and freely accessible information and resources, and users are growing rapidly as we build out the learning content.
Marginalised communities stand to lose the most in terms of AI because at the moment, AI is largely being trained without indigenous perspectives. We simply aren’t being included in a lot of the LLMs (the data that systems like ChatGPT draw on) because we haven’t claimed our seat at the table. These are conversations and discussions that will have a global impact, so we need a voice at the table.
My vision is that one day, I’ll walk on to every marae and hear the elders articulate, even at a basic level, how AI will improve life for their people. They’ll have an AI roadmap and they would have identified the younger leaders who are working towards achieving that future.
The truth is, if we are not part of it, we will be swept away by it. We want to be in a position to ride this wave. It’s moving at pace and all of us deserve to get in on the momentum.