Richard Brudvik-Lindner has experienced two pivotal moments in tech history. He was a Microsoft executive at the company’s head office in Seattle in 1995 when founder Bill Gates sent a memo describing the internet as a “tidal wave” that was an incredible opportunity and a challenge.
By the time ChatGPT surged on to the scene, Brudvik-Lindner had transitioned from tech exec to social studies teacher in New Zealand, where he’d settled in 2010. This time, he didn’t need a memo to recognise the development of AI as a similar technological revolution. Now, he’s helping his adopted hometown, Nelson, gain a reputation as an emerging hub of the new technology.
Seeing the emergence of ChatGPT in November 2022, Brudvik-Lindner’s thoughts went to his students at Nelson College, wondering how best to prepare them for the coming sea change. “I started thinking about the cognitive skills that will become important in an AI world from an education perspective,” he says.
As a classroom teacher and head of the school’s gifted and talented programme, he was also aware students wanted to see a future for themselves in the Top of the South/Te Tau Ihu region in something other than the sectors they considered it was renowned for: tourism, seafood, science and forestry.
The upshot is the Nelson AI Sandbox, an almost algebraic equation of technology marketer times teacher times indefatigable curiosity squared, resulting in what its backers see as a one-of-a-kind, grassroots-based approach to harnessing the use of AI at the community level.
Opened initially in a former travel agency office in the central city, the AI Sandbox is now housed in Mahitahi Colab, an innovation space for co-working on the Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology campus. The facility, a subsidiary of the Nelson AI Institute (NAI), invites people to come and “play” with the technology, like kids in a sandpit.
Co-founder Brudvik-Lindner may have lit the wick but he credits others with bringing the Sandbox to life. “It takes a group of people to decide they’re going to try to address something as momentous as AI and its impact, and that’s what happened here,” he says.
The significant others include NAI directors Mark Houghton Brown and Julian Maclaren, tech expert Richard Butler, and philanthropist Matthew Kidson, director of Kernohan Engineering. Its first office was rent-free, co-ordinated by another not-for-profit, Make/Shift Spaces, which matches empty commercial properties with artists and project co-ordinators. Iwi Ngāti Kuia and global digital creative firm Shuttlerock, which has its head office in Nelson, also pitched in. “These guys also saw the opportunity and the concerns that AI presents and realised it would be great to do something for our community,” says Brudvik-Lindner.
NAI supports the AI Sandbox with expertise and some funding; other funding comes from sponsors. “What makes the AI Sandbox so unique is that it’s a community-led initiative that operates from storefront-like locations, like a community centre that uses AI.” He says it is grassroots-led throughout rather than council or government-driven.
Widespread interest
In just over 12 months, the team of volunteers and one paid staff member (a part-time position was recently added) have helped about 12,000 locals get a grasp of AI’s capabilities. They range from primary school kids to octogenarians. Representatives from tech and venture capital communities in Wellington and Christchurch have also visited, keen to see the model in action.
In September, then-minister of science, innovation and technology Judith Collins visited, hearing from locals how they and their enterprises are using AI. “I’m really grateful you are demystifying, bringing it down to earth and providing practical solutions for people,” Collins told a gathering. Her portfolios now include digitising government.
Among the crowd that day was Emma Thompson, who owns local PR and marketing firm Publik Agency. Having accessed information through the Sandbox, she says her firm is using AI to do low-value work while following strict policy guidelines. “We’re also looking at crisis and issues communications and how we could potentially customise an AI solution for ourselves and the industry.”
Brudvik-Lindner likens the AI Sandbox to a 21st-century library where, instead of books, people access technology they might not otherwise be able to afford, or want, to invest in, to test the water and learn.
“We’re serving the entire community. That means people who are on the margins of society, people who are within the power structure of society, people from different careers, different ethnicities – all ages and stages.
“There’ll be someone here to assist them in demystifying AI in a safe environment,” says Brudvik-Lindner, whose CV also includes working for game developers Sega and Nintendo. “Anyone can come and have a play – from the AI savvy to the hesitant looking to take some first steps.”
Innovation capital
Why Nelson? Why not, says Brudvik-Lindner. It has always been a centre of innovation and pioneered the launch of a public library system and public schooling in the 1840s and 1850s.
In science, the Nelson-based Cawthron Institute is the country’s largest independent research organisation. “Our heritage is intellectual capital and I believe [Nelson] could be a leader again by creating good healthy uses of AI that increase prosperity, equitability and liveability, and help build a sustainable economy.”
For some, a visit is purely out of interest or has emerged from the Sandbox’s connection to Nelson College. Others were quick to see how understanding AI could be beneficial to their work. Ngāti Kuia has become one of AI Sandbox’s biggest supporters.
Ngāti Kuia CEO Eugene Whakahoehoe strongly believes embracing AI is enabling the iwi to provide better services to its whānau and the community. The organisation began its AI journey several months before the opening of the Sandbox, hiring its own AI adviser to identify ways to increase efficiencies in processes, decision-making and delivery of services, as well as tailoring training and personal development solutions for kaimahi (staff).
“Māori have always been navigators, good at problem-solving and using different tools,” says Whakahoehoe. “We’ve just taken a new tool and fashioned it to improve the things we’re doing.
“Kaimahi are using the AI Sandbox to familiarise themselves with AI tools that might help them upskill and automate parts of their workflow.”
Nicole Curtis, hauora initiative and communications lead at Ngāti Kuia, would love to see AI being used to create an augmented-reality experience to help bring pūrākau [traditional stories] to life for educational engagement with whānau. She anticipates AI could soon be helping iwi in its monitoring work. “We’re already doing environmental monitoring and it would be amazing to be able to use that alongside AI to track environmental changes in real-time, for example, in waterways, forestry, fisheries, and restoration areas. Potentially this could be used for predictive analytics, so as kaitiaki we can help to restore te taiao [the environment].”
Potential in nursing
At first, David Brydon volunteered at the Sandbox out of interest. A former IT student, it didn’t take long for him to realise how powerful it could be in his new vocation, nursing. He is now heading a research project, AI Nurse Partnership, funded by the Health Research Council, investigating how AI can help nurses improve efficiency and patient outcomes and help guide policymakers.
“There are almost 80,000 nurses in New Zealand – they are our largest workforce in health, and they’re at the heart of our healthcare system,” says Brydon, who will graduate as a registered nurse this year.
“I haven’t come across anyone else looking specifically into how AI can help nursing.”
One way might be to use AI as a cultural mentor: “to have an expert on your shoulder that can not only speak the languages but pull out the different dialects and understand the area that person’s from and therefore what cultures they may be connected to. [It] would help nurses give individualised care,” he says.
The AI Sandbox has already sparked creative solutions and a start-up business. Two Nelson College students, Arturo Neale, 16, and Finn Palmer, 16, volunteered there and are now designing a custom AI tool to enable those who can’t physically access the building to still have access to the latest AI models.
Technology entrepreneur Brian Radke has launched a start-up, Voice AI New Zealand. Radke is another US expat in Nelson. His clients include Hollywood producers and New Zealand-based professional services and trade businesses; his work includes everything from web development to general consulting.
“It was amazing to find the Sandbox open up in Nelson, of all places,” says Radke. “I went to find out more about it and from day one, I knew I wanted to be involved.
“In my work, I spend most of my time educating people and helping them leverage and use AI. That’s one of the reasons I love volunteering at the Sandbox, helping people uncover and use technology to improve their lives. AI is, hands down, the best tool for that ever created, and it’s getting better every day.”
His initiative uses AI-driven technology to create voice-assistant systems tailored for Kiwi businesses, including call handling and appointment booking. He says it can transform how businesses engage with customers. “For a tradie, for instance, who’s working with tools, answering the phone can be crucial because 85% of customers won’t ring back if you miss their first call.”
Pay attention
Due to popular demand, the AI Sandbox recently opened an offshoot space in the city’s central library. “We said to the council, ‘You guys should really pay attention to AI and can also be supportive of the community embracing it in a positive way,’” says Brudvik-Lindner. “They’re now one of the leaders in local government trying to figure out what to do with artificial intelligence.”
Nelson City Council has been recognised as an early adopter of AI, working with a local consultant to use AI tools in formulating its long-term plan.
Nicky McDonald, the council’s group manager of strategy and communications and organisational lead on AI, says with councils facing rising costs and many ratepayers struggling financially, AI can be one of the tools to help deliver services more efficiently at lower cost.
The AI Sandbox provided a sounding board with expertise and experience as the council explored its options, says McDonald. “Crucially, it’s also going out into the community and reducing that fear and distrust of AI, which means as a council we can start to use it in delivering services.”
Radke’s time at the Sandbox has shown him the potential myriad community uses of AI. He met a teacher overwhelmed with preparing material for her English-as-a-second language learners at varying levels of proficiency.
“I spent about an hour showing her how AI could help create worksheets and conversation starters tailored to each level. She couldn’t believe it when we put together a set of lessons in minutes that would normally take her an entire day to prepare.
“What really excited her was seeing how AI could generate examples using contexts from her students’ home countries, something she’d always struggled with. Now, her students are learning faster than ever, and she uses AI to handle all her lesson planning.”
No avoiding it
The AI Sandbox recently won a grant from the Rātā Foundation (originally Trust Bank Canterbury Community Trust) to work with non-profits, especially their governance boards, to help build AI capacity.
“Running a not-for-profit of my own, I know so many operate on the smell of an oily rag,” says Brudvik-Lindner. “Anything that can build capacity for them, save resources and help them be more responsive to the people they serve is like gold.
“AI will affect absolutely everyone and the change will be vast. It’s accelerating at a pace even I’m surprised by.”
He believes Nelson’s independent, grassroots-focused approach is unique in preparing the community to make the best out of the AI wave.
“We’re not Pollyannas – we don’t believe everything about [AI] is good, and we’re not here to evangelise it. What we can do is educate our citizens about some of the safety issues and ethical considerations, and how to amplify the good uses of AI.
“Nelson’s AI Sandbox could be used as a blueprint to help other New Zealand towns and cities accomplish similar goals. These things are never a one-person effort. though; it definitely takes a team to make it happen.”
