Paranoid Androids

AI, and attacks from the TPU.

When I am king, you will be first against the wall
With your opinion, which is of no consequence at all

Songwriters: Philip Selway / Jonathan Greenwood / John O’brien / Thomas Yorke / Colin Charles Greenwood.

AI hypocrisy.

You might have seen Maiki Sherman on 1 News last week with what she seemed to think was a story of importance, revealing that Labour MP Ingrid Leary had used AI to prepare her questions for Minister for Smoking, Ciggies Costello.

This came about with an email that had clearly been sent in error, something that is not unusual, according to Matt Doocey, who was interviewed in the story.

But rather than letting Ingrid know she had sent an email in error, as any of us might when we receive something that was clearly not meant for us, Costello decided to make it shark bait for the media pack.

But wasn’t that the pot calling the kettle black?

At the last election, National used AI images of terrified citizens cowering in their homes from the crime wave supposedly destroying the country under Labour or of health workers who looked suspiciously like AI, as if National couldn’t find any real Pasifika people to support them.

A New Zealand National Party ad using AI-generated people of apparent Pacific island descent. Photograph: NZ National Party.

You still see it in their advertising, and thanks to Allan for sending me the following image last night.

Some words look as if their spelling has been changed by AI, like “apprecaied” here, and the people aren’t quite right. I mean, just how many fingers does the lady with the baby have? It might be the right amount, but something doesn’t look quite right.

Sometimes you don’t know what to believe with your eyes, for example, the image above suggests that waiting times have been cut, which is about as plausible as the suggestion that the sign using the word “Apprecaied” is not only real but was chosen by National’s social media team as the image to use.

It’s not just images either. With the IPSOS poll that attracted everyone’s attention, indicating that crime was the only area where voters rated the National Party above Labour, they were eager to capitalise on it.

So keen that they had to remove an AI-generated video of police seizing gang patches.

A convenient crash.

Maybe, as often seems the case in this coalition, it’s a case of the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing.

NZ First might think that Labour’s use of AI to gain information is worse than giving people lung cancer and akin to burning witches. But, National is all for it as a productivity aid, while acknowledging the risks.

In Fran O’Sullivan’s article, Nicola Willis is quoted as saying, “We should be using more AI. We need to be more efficient. We want to be a leaner, better machine, and we need to use fiscal levers to keep that progress going.”

While simultaneously lining up a potential crash in the AI sector as her next excuse as to why the economy is so bad.

Don’t panic, though, Nicola says that through her management, we’re going to be ok. The Finance Minister said, “That’s why I have maintained in our fiscal strategy a prudent debt position, because we know from previous shocks that we need to be able to borrow to get ourselves through those periods.”

But not everyone is buying it, and Fran adds, “the NZ Taxpayers’ Union — argue she has yet to actually reduce debt. They say she has yet to build prudent fiscal buffers.”

They’re not wrong, we have the worst of all worlds with Nicola Willis managing to make austerity cuts while still spending more and continuing to borrow.

But why should we listen to the Taxpayers’ Union (TPU)? They don’t represent taxpayers; it’s just Jordan Williams, a man with rather unpleasant views on women as communicated to his mate Cameron Slater, and a few old ACT types that you assumed died years ago. Why give those people any more of a platform?

Nicky Not Neoliberal enough.

Last week, David Seymour accused the Christchurch school principal, Peggy Burrows, who had reported his mouldy lunches, of seeking the media spotlight.

The irony is that the TPU - essentially the media arm of the ACT party - receives an absurd amount of coverage. This weekend, both Thomas Coughlan and Matthew Hooton wrote about an impending attack by the TPU on Nicola Willis.

According to Hooton, the TPU “will next week launch a major advertising and social media campaign to oust Finance Minister Nicola Willis.”

Apparently, the lobbying group will be undertaking the “toughest campaign” in its history, ostensibly to oust Willis. Still, I’m sure that if it can increase ACT’s vote, they would consider that a success.

If you were a cold-hearted neoliberal, and I’m not sure there’s another kind, you might not appreciate Nicola’s results either:

Willis has taxed us more than Robertson, spent more, and borrowed more, while overseeing a massive increase in unemployment. The TPU don’t have any plans for jobs, but they certainly have views on Nicola’s spending.

It turns out she is being too kind.

In Couglan’s article, he extols the moderation of the Finance Minister, and I hope you don’t have a mouthful:

“She’s run no zero Budgets and accepted Labour’s expensive health-spending trajectory. The headline numbers suggest she’s the most moderate National Finance Minister in decades.”

Thomas seems to have a short memory. About the only thing I appreciated the Key/English government for was that, at the time of the Global Financial Crisis, they chose not to implement austerity measures to the degree seen elsewhere and, through reduced-hour programmes, tried to keep people in work.

I haven’t seen much of that with this lot.

Careful what you wish for.

ACT apparently would have preferred much greater cuts, including to core benefits, as TPU matriarch Ruth Richardson once did, which brings us to them. I wrote:

You might not like the things that Nicola Willis has done, but remember that when the Taxpayers’ Union attack her, it’s because they want even more cuts and austerity.

Sandy commented, “‘Beware the wrath of woman scorned‘ Looks like we are about to have a real bun fight between Richardson and Willis. I hope there isn’t a winner.” Me too, although we’re all going to be losers if the TPU win.

Yes, I said it: we’re better off with Nicola.

Certainly, compared to whichever ATLAS Network stooge the TPU would find acceptable.

Follow the money.

In yet another article about the TPU in the NZ Herald, Fran asks where the money for such a campaign comes from.

It’s a good question.

We’re concerned enough about the influence of the ACT party, with just 8% at the last election, but what about the TPU? They’re not a political party, and nobody voted for them - should they be able to wield influence over the government as they seek to with this attack?

Fran writes: “Campaigns take cold, hard cash. While the Taxpayers’ Union says it sports 200,000 on its newsletter list, it is not transparent over the identity of its major donors.

This detracts from its authenticity.”

If lobby groups like the TPU are going to influence not only our elections but even the composition of an elected government, then we ought to know where the money is coming from. Don’t you think?

It’s easy not to take it seriously because it’s an attack on Nicola. I’m pretty sure there isn’t much sympathy for her among readers of this newsletter, but if the TPU are happy to take out a National Party Finance Minister, who knows what they’ll do the next time Labour and the Greens are in power.

I’ll leave it there for today. Have a good one, folks, and take care, all of you lovely people.

Ngā mihi,
Nick.

To end, here’s Ball Park Music with a cover of Radiohead’s Paranoid Android. It’s pretty bloody good, I reckon.