The Wire with Castor

As artificial intelligence systems including the likes of chatbots and art generators become more advanced, their use has begun to pervade the political arena. 

Across the world, political leaders and parties including Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, and now New Zealand’s own ACT Party, have used AI images to promote a certain political agenda or message. 

In the case of the ACT Party, an artificial stock image from Adobe AI titled “happy Māori couple sitting in a living room” was featured in a social media post underneath the tagline “Kiwis are saving over $150 per week on their mortgages since ACT entered government”.

Producer Sara spoke with University of Otago Media, Film and Communications Professor, Dr Olivier Jutel about this new era of AI political content. 

To begin, she asked him to discuss why ACTs recent social media post was so problematic.

Greenpeace Aotearoa recently conducted a round of water testing at a series of bore wells in the Ashburton district. 

The tests found that close to one in five private bores they tested were above the Government’s maximum allowable value of nitrate in drinking water, which is 11.3mg per litre, and that nitrate contamination had been linked to a number of preterm birth complications.

Greenpeace have also linked the nitrate contamination to the dairy industry and the use of synthetic nitrogen fertiliser which leaches into groundwater.

Oto spoke to Will Applebe, Greenpeace Aotearoa’s Freshwater campaigner, about nitrate contamination in the Ashburton district’s water and their calls to the ministry of health to address it.

This week on the Tuesday Wire...

For Dear Science this week, our expert, Professor Allan Blackman chatted with us about using physics to make a better cup of joe, inuit words for snow, and Leonardo Da Vinci’s birthday. 

In our weekly catchup with the National Party’s Nancy Lu, Wire host Castor asked about the Treaty Principles Bill after it was voted down and about a recent study into harassment of female MPs. 

They spoke to head of journalism at AUT, Greg Treadwell about the recent Trust in News in Aotearoa New Zealand report and how to improve relations between the public and news media.  

And they spoke to Deputy Dean in the Faculty of Arts and Education at the University of Auckland, Camilla Highfield, about Kāhui Ako, an education programme which appears to be on the chopping block.

Producer Amani spoke to Associate Property Professor at the University of Auckland, Edward Yiu, about a recent study which has found Aotearoa’s accommodation supplement to be failing to ease housing stress.

A report was released this week titled ‘Trust in News in Aotearoa New Zealand’, containing data on how much the New Zealand public trusts news organisations. While trust has been declining over the past five years, this year has seen some stabilisation and some optimistic statistics for the future. 

To discuss the report and what it means for the relationship between the public and media in Aotearoa, Wire host Castor spoke to one of the study’s authors and head of journalism at AUT, Greg Treadwell.

You can find the full report here.