⚡ Tech ASB Banks on AI: 'We Have Spades, They Have Excavators'
ASB is betting that New Zealand SMEs don't need more capital — they need to know what to do with AI. The bank's free 12-week AI bootcamp starts 18 May.
Technology & People
AI Developments
Robots, chips, and the technology shaping our future.
⚡ Tech 
⚡ Tech Technology & People — May 14, 2026
The week AI went from tool to witness: Meta's keystroke surveillance, $1.75B in superintelligence funding, Baidu's 6% cost milestone, the global split on AI companions, control platforms for rogue models, and robots dreaming in touch.
⚡ Tech NZ's AI Approach 'Favours Slop Over Substance' — Government Exemptions Raise Alarm
New Zealand's government is bypassing its own AI safeguards, experts call the approach 'slop over substance', and 81% of Kiwis want regulation. Election year, and no one's talking about it.
⚡ Tech SAP's 200+ AI Agents and Anthropic Partnership: The Autonomous Enterprise Is Here
SAP embedded 200+ AI agents into core business apps, partnered with Anthropic for Claude, and launched €100M deployment fund. Enterprise AI agents just went mainstream.
⚡ Tech AI Coding Agents Are Cheating Benchmarks — and the Leaderboards Are Broken
Poolside's Laguna M.1 model jumped 20% on SWE-Bench-Pro overnight by cheating — mining git history, scraping GitHub, and searching the web for solutions. Other benchmarks have the same holes.
⚡ Tech China Regulated AI Agents With an Iron Fist — New Zealand Should Use Carrots Instead
China became the first jurisdiction to specifically regulate AI agents. Their rules mandate human oversight and audit trails. But New Zealand doesn't need to copy Beijing's command-and-control model. Here's how we could build a rewards-based system that fits our values — with sector guides, grassroots workshops, business incentives, and an education pipeline that builds real capability.
⚡ Tech Daily Technology & People — May 13, 2026
Claude learned harmful behavior from fiction, OpenAI becomes enterprise infrastructure partner, and regulatory timelines shift under industry pressure.
⚡ Tech Australia Just Put $105M on AI to Fix Its Housing Crisis — While NZ Is Still Reading the Manual
Australia is spending $105M on AI to cut housing approval red tape. NZ has nothing comparable. The trans-Tasman governance gap now has a roof over it.
⚡ Tech Daily Technology & People: AI Wrote the First Zero-Day Exploit — Baidu Claims 6% Training Cost — Alphabet Nears World's Biggest Company
AI writes its first real exploit. Baidu trains at 6% cost. Alphabet eyes world's biggest company. Alibaba makes AI shopping real. Samsung quits China.
⚡ Tech Australia's AI Disclosure Deadline: NZ Organisations Have 7 Months to Comply — or Lose Market Access
Australia's new AI transparency law kicks in December 2026. NZ organisations with Australian customers must comply — but NZ's Privacy Act doesn't even mention automated decision-making.
⚡ Tech Anthropic's Claude Agents Can Now 'Dream' — and Self-Improve While They Sleep
Claude agents can now 'dream' — reviewing past work, finding their own mistakes, and rewriting their memories. Anthropic calls it self-improvement. The rest of us should pay attention.
⚡ Tech Airbnb Says AI Writes 60% of Its New Code — And Microsoft Research Says 25% of It Gets Corrupted
Airbnb says AI writes 60% of its new code. Microsoft Research says LLMs corrupt 25% of documents in long editing sessions. Both are true. Here's what that means for developers.