On The Up: Hawke’s Bay start‑up MahiAI aims to protect tikanga when people generate AI content

Atarau Hamilton (left), Te Huia Bill Hamilton and Grace Ropitini at MahiAI's Hastings office. Photo / Jack Riddell

A company founded by a Hawke’s Bay entrepreneur is giving artificial intelligence a te ao Māori worldview.

MahiAI started after founder and company leader Atarau Hamilton, 30, noticed recycled answers, incorrect information, hallucinated websites and generic content that often misrepresented or ignored Māori perspectives coming out of AI generators, such as ChatGPT.

“When people are using AI to generate content that is Māori or uses te reo or tikianga, what we do is ensure that it captures the context, because in Māori we’re big on the horopaki or context of things – that’s how our words get meaning,” he said.

Hamilton said the company also supports its clients to ensure the context of Māori content, and the way clients are using the content, comes from a place of truth.

“We know in te ao Māori, per region, per takiwā, per iwi, we have different, multiple truths,” he said.

“For example, in Te Waipounamu [the South Island], their creation story involves a few more deities to the general story around Rangi and Papa.”

In Māori legend, the creation story involves the sky father Ranginui (Rangi) and the earth mother Papatūānuku (Papa) locked in a tight embrace from which their numerous children were born.

“We’re out there to have our rangatahi step in and provide advice on content that is produced, whether it’s AI scripts, whether it’s any kind of marketing or media material, and just to ensure that it maintains the integrity of both the business and of Māori at the same time,” Hamilton said.

The company already has employees across the motu to help Kiwi businesses build trust with their Māori customers, including Grace Ropitini, who services Te Matau a Māui/Hawke’s Bay and central North Island for the company.

Ropitini trained as a kaiako/teacher and considers AI a growing opportunity for young Māori to step forward.

“A lot of our whānau are really unsure about AI,” she said.

“I’m a big believer in education, and I believe that if we want to safeguard and protect our cultural intellectual property as Māori, then we need to be really well versed in AI and be able to operate confidently in that space.

“I see [MahiAI] as a rangatahi opportunity, but it’s a really big opportunity to help guide Māori into the AI space while also supporting businesses.”

On the company’s kāhui mātauranga/knowledge group is Hamilton’s koro Te Huia Bill Hamilton.

He came on board to support his mokopuna and help form the future of tikianga within the tech space.

“I just support what these two have said about the rangatahi space because they’re all versed in tikanga and they know that stuff, they’re passionate about it, they love it, and they also know the digital space,” he said.

“I get my mokopuna to show me how to load my phone up and to do stuff like that, so all that technology is way beyond me, but looking after them is my role to make sure that in the tikanga space, but also in the decision making, that they’re comfortable and safe about it.”

Jack Riddell is a multimedia journalist with Hawke’s Bay Today and has worked in radio and media in Auckland, London, Berlin and Napier.