Us techies have a role in heralding opportunity, but we’re also responsible for firing warning flares – Pew Pew, this is the latter.
I’ve been sitting with a deep feeling these past few months – and WIPCE 25′ (World Indigenous Peoples’ Conference on Education) this week made it even clearer.
Around the world, governments and industries are accelerating AI adoption as a response to global economic decline. The narrative is urgent: innovate fast, adopt faster, or get left behind. The momentum feels unstoppable.
And yet, my spirit does not feel settled. Something in the wairua feels…off-balance.
As a technologist, I know the potential of these tools. I’ve spent my life working in digital, quantum, critical systems, innovation, and governance. I understand what AI can enable for us. The promise is real.
But the pace of technological adoption and the readiness of our societal evolution are out of sync, dangerously so.
We are building systems faster than we are building wisdom.
We are automating future pathways without grounding ourselves in purpose.
We are chasing short-term gain with long-term consequences.We may even be preparing the way for cyber criminals to act – especially if what you are building doesn’t have robust secure mechanisms.
And most concerning: we are not asking the organ-level questions, the deep ones that determine what kind of future we are actually shaping.
Questions like:
He aha te mea nui? What is the most important thing here?
Is it productivity…or people?
Is it efficiency…or integrity?
Is it acceleration…or alignment?What parts of humanity must remain un-automated?
Where is the line between helpful augmentation and erosion of agency?Who holds mana over emerging intelligence?
Whose ethics, whose tikanga, whose worldview gets encoded into the systems that will mediate our decisions, our data, and our democracy?How do we evolve human consciousness at the same pace as technology?
Because tools are advancing faster than our cultural, social, and ethical maturity.These are the questions that shape civilisation, not just technology.
And at WIPCE this week, surrounded by thousands of Indigenous educators and leaders, something struck me deeply:
When worldview, philosophy, and values are aligned – today’s actions match tomorrow’s intended outcomes.
This is what Indigenous frameworks do so beautifully.
At WIPCE, no matter where people came from Aotearoa, Canada, Australia, Hawai‘i, Alaska, Sámi lands, the kōrero centred on:
- People
- Place
- Planet
- Whakapapa
- Integrity
- Ethics
- Intergenerational responsibility (mokopuna decisions, not quarterly reports)
Technology was discussed = yes.
Innovation was discussed = yes.
But always through the lens of mana, mauri, kaitiakitanga, whanaungatanga.This is how systems stay in balance.
This is how actions today uphold the wellbeing of tomorrow.
This is how we avoid the drift, the slow slide into a world shaped by tools instead of values.
And it made me realise something:
Much of the global AI narrative is not aligned.
It is fast, but not grounded.
Ambitious, but not ethical.
Innovative, but not relational.
Hopeful, but not centred in humanity.We cannot keep treating technology as inevitable and humans as an afterthought.
We cannot keep pushing adoption because the economy demands it while ignoring the social, cultural, and psychological consequences.
We cannot let hype drown out pātai matua, the essential questions.
If AI is to uplift humanity, then humanity must lead the conversation, not chase it.
So here is the pātai that I think matters most:
Are we building technology that strengthens us – or technology that outpaces us?
Because if our tools evolve faster than our ethics, our cultural frameworks, our societal readiness, and our collective consciousness…
…then we are not moving forward.
We are moving out of alignment.I’m not anti-technology.
I’m unapologetically pro-human, pro-planet, pro-life – that contributes.And I believe we can build a future where technology enhances mana, not diminishes it.
Where innovation is grounded in tikanga.
Where digital systems honour whakapapa and protect mauri.
Where progress is measured not just in adoption, but in integrity.But only if we have the courage to pause, even briefly, and ask the questions that actually shape the next 150 years.
Ehara tēnei i te wā mā te mataku, engari, he wā mā te whakaaro nui.
This is not a time for fear, but a time for deep, deliberate thought.Because the future we are building is the whakapapa our mokopuna will inherit.
And they deserve a future built on more than acceleration.
They deserve a future built on alignment.