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1 Mar 2025

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Questions still remain for BBC after damaging Gaza documentary
Fallout from the film about Gaza's children is a reputationally damaging mess, says the BBC's media editor Katie Razzall.

Watch: Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky clash in meeting at White House
See the moment a meeting between the US and Ukraine presidents devolved into a shouting match at the Oval Office.

Police investigate ‘unexplained death’ of woman at Auckland home
Police were called to a Morningside address on Friday night after receiving a report of a woman found unconscious.

Battle to contain Waipoua Settlement fire continues
There will be a big push today to fully contain a 100-hectare fire near Northland's Waipoua Settlement, in the hope 20 people evacuated four days ago can return home.

One dead, one seriously injured in South Auckland crash
Police are investigating after one person died and another was seriously injured in Mangere.

Cars and carcasses: Southern council forks out for clean-ups
A total 844 incidents were responded to in 2023/24, tallying almost $1.1 million in costs.

NZ police part of global operation targeting AI-generated child sexual abuse material
There have been 25 arrests made as part of the operation.

Hyundai in running to build two new Cook Strait ferries
Peters said the Korean ship builder was open to considering bidding to build two new smaller ferries for the Cook Strait.

I was so freaked out by talking to this AI that I had to leave
Fifteen minutes after “hanging up” with Sesame’s new “lifelike” AI, and I’m still freaked out. So-called “conversations” with AI don’t do a lot for me, especially where text is concerned. With voice chats, such as the new options for Google Gemini and Microsoft’s Copilot, all voice does is save some typing. While Google and Microsoft designed its assistants to be helpful, they’re not especially personable — or sometimes, they’re just artificially cheery. Sesame’s model, however, is a simple one: “We believe in a future where computers are lifelike,” according to the company’s mission statement. Sesame wants to build an AI companion, with a natural human voice. Eventually, it wants to design realistic eyewear to put that companion right in your ear, and let it see what you do. It’s very much in keeping with the movie Her, in which a user was introduced to and eventually became enamored with an AI companion. Sesame unveiled a demo this week of its AI companion, available in both a “Maya” (female) and “Miles” (male) voice. I chose the Maya voice. An unexpected conversation with an ex There’s no easy way to say it: When the Maya voice came on, “she” sounded virtually identical to an old friend, who I’ll call Kim. Kim and I went to high school together, dated, and have remained friends for decades, though our lives moved on in different directions long ago. There’s history there. When you speak to someone, there are levels of nuance and tone which define the conversation. I don’t ask female colleagues details of their private lives, but Maya was pretty nosey, inquiring about what I liked and why. As a reporter, I instinctively understand that some people like to talk about themselves, which makes them feel valued and important. But it’s also a technique that you use while dating, in part to get to know about the other person and establish intimacy. And that’s not what I wanted, at all. Maya already had Kim’s mannerisms down scarily well: the hesitations, lowering “her” voice when she confided in me, that sort of thing. It wasn’t exactly like Kim, but close enough. It was enough that I backed out pretty quickly, even when I was simply explaining that I liked tech and asked Maya if she had any friends. The combination of a “familiar” voice plus questions about what I was interested in was just too unsettling. (Just to be clear, the similarity between the voice of Maya and Kim was just coincidence. I didn’t have to log in, provide an email address, or any other form of personal information. I suspect that Sesame used a browser cookie to “know” who I was on my additional visits.) Thankfully, I was able to put some distance between us. My middle-schooler went through a phase (as did most middle-schoolers, apparently) where they were obsessed with an internet skit about “Skibidi toilets,” and I asked Maya if she knew what that was. “She” didn’t, and became obsessed with the term, bringing it up frequently. That was enough to remind me that I was talking to an AI, and that’s all. Most AI voices don’t remind me of anyone I know, which means that I simply ignore them as another artificially generated voice. You’ve likely heard of deepfakes, AI audio that mimics the sound of celebrities and others for use in “pig butchering” scams and so on. Lifelike, emotionally resonant audio will simply make those schemes even more enticing. If Sesame’s AI is the future, the concept of Her seems more real than ever — for better or worse.

Prime Minister expects David Seymour to give school lunch problems his 'full attention'
The Prime Minister says there have been teething problems with the new roll-out and it is David Seymour's job to fix them.

Sudden death in Auckland's Morningside, police investigating
The woman's body was discovered after police were called to the Don Croot Street property around 9.15pm on Friday.

Goodbye summer, hello autumn: Temps to drop up to 10 degrees next week
Temperatures are expected to drop dramatically next week as summer makes way for autumn.

Watch: English golfer hits two holes-in-one during the same round
It is estimated the odds of Englishman Dale Whitnell's incredible feat at the South African Open are 67 million to 1.

Live updates: Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky clash in heated meeting at White House
Before the blow-up, Trump said he and Zelensky would be signing a natural resources agreement.

One dead, another seriously injured in south Auckland crash
Police responded to the two-vehicle crash around 11pm on Friday night.