Data Sovereignty

Context

AI runs on data. Who controls that data — and how it's used — is a fundamental governance question. For New Zealand, this includes both general data rights and the specific obligations of Te Tiriti o Waitangi regarding Maori data.

Sovereign inference — not just data, but compute

Data sovereignty is only half the picture. If NZ's data stays onshore but is processed by foreign-controlled AI systems, sovereignty is illusory. We propose that New Zealand operate government-owned inference infrastructure running open-source models — ensuring that sensitive workloads (health, education, justice, public services) are processed on systems NZ controls.

This avoids dependence on either US or Chinese AI providers, whose terms, pricing, and political alignment can change without notice. Open-weight models (Llama, Mistral, and successors) make this feasible today at a fraction of the cost of building foundation models from scratch.

Key areas to explore

• Te Mana Raraunga — Maori data sovereignty principles and their application to AI
• Sovereign inference — Government-operated AI compute on open-source models
• National data strategy — What data should NZ hold sovereign control over?
• Privacy — How NZ's Privacy Act applies to AI data collection and use
• Cross-border data flows — NZ data in overseas AI systems
• Government data — Open data for innovation vs privacy and sovereignty concerns
• Individual data rights — Personal control over data used to train AI systems

Questions for contributors

1. How should Te Mana Raraunga principles be integrated into AI governance?
2. What data should New Zealand not allow to leave the country?
3. How do we balance open data for innovation with sovereignty concerns?
4. What is the minimum viable sovereign inference infrastructure for NZ government use?