Your feedbackDo you want to be part of influencing New Zealand’s future? We are seeking feedback on the topic and scope of our next Long-term Insights Briefing (LTIB).Your feedback will be used to help define and scope the topic for us to dive deeper on. There will be another opportunity in early 2025 to discuss, generate and capture the issues and ideas on this topic that will affect New Zealand in the future. All feedback will help us create a future-focused briefing that will be presented to Parliament in mid-2025 to help shape future advice and government decision making.What is a Long-term Insights Briefing?He aha te Whakamāramatanga mō ngā Tirohanga Wā Roa?A Long-term Insights Briefing (LTIB) is a think piece to help us, as a country, think about and plan for the future. It considers long-term trends that will affect New Zealand over the next 10-50 years and beyond.The Public Service Act 2020 requires government departments to produce an LTIB at least once every three years. LTIBs provide analysis on topics that will need to be considered as part of future policy work to address the issues of tomorrow.Each briefing explores a different topic – decided by the government department after consultation. Topics should:have significant implications for the long-term wellbeing of New Zealandershave not yet received adequate considerationbe relevant to the agencies producing them, andbe sufficiently different to work that’s already being undertaken by the government (current government policy).For more information about LTIBs, see the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet’s website.Long-term Insights Briefings (DPMC)What is the proposed topic?He aha te take e marohitia ana?How will digital technology change the way New Zealanders tell their stories in 2040 and beyond?The Ministry’s first LTIB, published in 2022, focused on the topic: Into the future, what are some of the key areas that will influence the vibrancy and sustainability of the cultural sector ecosystem? Based on extensive feedback from across the cultural and creative sectors, five themes emerged: Te Ao Māori, Funding, Investment and Value, Population Change, Digital Technology, and Climate Change.Long-term Insights Briefing 2022This time, we want to focus on one of the key themes from our 2022 briefing in more depth – digital technology, including implications for te ao Māori.Within this proposed topic, there are several areas we could examine. We are seeking feedback on which are the most important issues relating to this topic for us to consider. These issues will then inform the focus of our LTIB.Why choose this topic?He aha i kōwhiria ai tēnei take?The creative and entertainment potentials of emerging technologies are expansive, providing new ways to distribute content, enhance existing physical experiences and explore immersive virtual worlds. […] While emerging technology can offer many benefits to the creative industries and their consumers, there are also a range of risks and harms associated with their use.– Connected Tech: AI and Creative 2023 Technology 2023 (UK Parliament)Issues related to digital technology are increasingly affecting the creative and cultural sectors. Digital technology is broad and is a significant part of the cultural system, from streaming music or visual content to the security of hosting information online.Recently, the emergence of new digital technologies such as applied and generative artificial intelligence (AI) has arisen as a leading area of interest. For example, a recent report on AI and the music industry in Australia and New Zealand has highlighted creatives’ concerns about their future career sustainability and potential for cultural appropriation.AI & Music Survey Results (APRA AMCOS)These developments raise important questions that require careful consideration. While work is being undertaken across government to address current issues, we have yet to fully explore the longer-term implications in a New Zealand context and how they may shape our future world. For example, we do not understand how global technological standards and trends may be applied in a New Zealand context, which could affect local cultural diversity. Nor what emerging technologies will affect how media content is delivered to New Zealanders and what impact there will be on media organisations as a result.Our topic will provide a way to consider future risks and opportunities in more depth. Within the overarching topic of digital technology we are proposing to focus on how New Zealanders tell their stories. A storytelling lens will enable us to look across the cultural and creative sectors to consider critical issues for New Zealand society, such as cultural memory, social cohesion, equity of access, and civic participation.What are the key issues?He aha ngā take hira?We are seeking feedback to help identify critical issues to investigate in relation to the proposed overarching topic. This feedback will inform the scope and structure of the LTIB.As a starting point, building on the insights from the Manatū Taonga LTIB in 2022, we have conducted horizon and environmental scanning to generate a shortlist of relevant issues for consideration. (See 'Short-listed issues' section below.)The products, services, and ways people access cultural content and activities is already changing as a result of digital technology. For example, imagine a future where:it is popular to engage in cultural activities through immersive technology such as virtual reality from your own home, and people no longer need to go to public eventscreative content and products are generated predominantly by AI and robotics the use of wearable and biometric technology allows people to put themselves directly into current events and news stories.Each possible future is associated with unique opportunities (e.g. mitigating damage to cultural heritage sites, increasing access to cultural content and activities, personalised and targeted experiences that are more meaningful), as well as perceived risks (e.g. increased digital divide, privacy challenges, digital infrastructure barriers, the loss of art and cultural forms, negative impacts on creative workers).In this LTIB, we will explore medium to long-term trends, risks and opportunities. Although we can never know for certain what the future will be, it is still possible to explore what might happen and what we might do to prepare for it. This includes how different possible futures may affect different communities over time.An LTIB must be future focused. This means that rather than discussing the issues affecting us now, we are looking to understand issues that will affect us in 2040 and beyond.Short-listed issuesNgā take kua whakawhāitihiaThese issues have been short-listed as possible areas of focus to explore the topic. They have been informed by our previous LTIB in 2022, and horizon and environmental scanning.Digital cultural participationHow we access and participate in cultural experiences.Potential sub-questions:How could digital technology affect access to and participation in cultural content and activities for different groups?How could digital technology affect the personalisation and impact of cultural experiences?How will digital cultural participation affect people’s inclusion in society?Culture, creativity and climateDigital technology and our relationship with the environment.Potential sub-questions:What are the implications of growing data storage requirements (e.g. required by digital collections, archives, media and screen) for the environment?How could developments in digital technology, including AI and immersive technology, affect our sense of place and relationship to the environment / te taiao?How could climate change impact digital global commerce within the cultural and creative industries?Te Ao MāoriThe implications of digital technology for te ao Māori.Potential sub-questions:What is required to manage and protect taonga and mātauranga in digital spaces for future generations?What are the implications for Māori data governance and sovereignty?How will digital technology be used to share Māori stories in Aotearoa and abroad?What impact will AI have in te reo Māori language and other cultural revitalisation?What are the implications of AI with regard to tikanga practices and access to cultural experiences?Our future historyHow digital technology will influence our collective histories.Potential sub-questions:How will our future histories shape or be shaped by AI?Whose stories will be told, by whom, and for whom?Whose voices may be lost or excluded over time?How will our histories be generated, saved and shared?Changing creative tools and productsThe use of digital technology in the creative process.Potential sub-questions:As we embrace new technology, what art forms do we risk losing or becoming obsolete, and what new art forms will emerge?How will digital technology drive innovation in the cultural and creative industries?How will digital transformation change the meaning of the concept of creativity, and how will this translate into an educational context?Digital commerceThe future of the cultural and creative economy.Potential sub-questions:How will increasing digital commerce and content distribution affect the cultural and creative industries, creative careers, and productivity?What are the potential impacts of revenue and distribution biases with use of new digital technology?How could global digital commerce impact media plurality and civic participation?Knowledge systemsHow we create, protect, share and consume information.Potential sub-questions:What are the risks and opportunities relating to copyright, intellectual and cultural property, and traditional and Indigenous knowledge?How will digital technology further affect misinformation and disinformation, and what are the implications for our media system and democracy?How will digital technology shape the ways in which we produce, represent and consume information?Digital infrastructureThe infrastructure and assets required to support technological development within the cultural system.Potential sub-questions:Who will save, store, and own cultural property, taonga and knowledge in the future?How will data storage shape our infrastructure and the production of cultural and creative products and services?What is required to support new digital, online and virtual delivery of cultural goods and services?Global connectionsFuture opportunities for New Zealand on the digital world stage.Potential sub-questions:How could digital technology shape New Zealand’s cultural identity and diplomacy in the future?How will our cultural system be shaped by new international trade and cooperation agreements?How will New Zealand stories be told and taonga shared across physical and digital borders?How can I provide feedback?Me pēhea taku tuku whakaaro?As part of the LTIB process, Manatū Taonga will be seeking feedback at two stages: on the proposed topic (this current consultation), and on the draft briefing in early 2025.The closing date for consultation on the on the proposed topic was 7 October 2024. The draft briefing consultation will seek feedback on the content, trends, and analyses in the LTIB. It is currently planned for March 2025.Once the consultation periods have been completed, a summary of the feedback will be published on the Ministry’s website.If you’d like to receive future updates on the LTIB process along with other public consultation opportunities, please sign up for the Ministry’s newsletter.How will my information be handled?Manatū Taonga uses SurveyMonkey to collect submission responses from the online survey. All information you provide will be safely and securely held in accordance with our privacy policy. Privacy policyUnder the Official Information Act 1982 (OIA), any person can ask Manatū Taonga for information it holds. This means we must release the information requested, unless there is a good reason to withhold it. To protect privacy, Section 9(2)(a) of the OIA allows us to withhold personal information including names and email addresses.