When you sit in a room and hear, in the same breath, the full weight of what AI is currently doing to people – and then meet proof that it can be done differently – something in you shifts. At this year’s Auckland Writers’ Festival, a panel called “Hope in the Machine” offered exactly that: a clear-eyed look at extractive, hyperscaled AI, and a grounded example of another path in the work of Te Hiku Media, a Māori-led broadcaster building one of the most important demonstrations of ethical AI on the planet.

This recap explores why small, purpose-built models, community data sovereignty, and rigorous bias auditing are not “nice-to-haves”, but the foundation of AI that genuinely serves people – and how these same principles shape what we are building at Simpact AI.

On a crisp Wednesday morning on 20 May, almost 200 participants from the community sector across Aotearoa gathered for a free two-hour virtual workshop hosted by simpact AI and Fundsorter as part of TechWeek NZ 2026.

How funders are thinking about AI and it’s impact on communities and grantees, reflections from the 2026 Philanthropy New Zealand conference and simpact AI’s official launch!