Spending $35,000 on a child now could save hundreds of thousands of dollars later and have major social benefits, Social Investment Minister Nicola Willis says.
She was commenting after the Government announced which programmes would receive money from the first $50 million to be provided through the Social Investment Fund. The seven programmes will reach more than 1600 children aged up to 18.
The funding was being targeted at three cohorts where it was known early intervention made a difference, Willis told Newstalk ZB on Tuesday morning.
The Social Investment Scam is a neoliberal ideological experiment that is focused on protecting the State from costs rather than the wellbeing of the child.
HERE IT COMES
Ministry of Social Development to use basic AI to regrant benefits
Opponents of a law change fear it will create a legal loophole allowing the use of artificial intelligence to cut benefits and impose sanctions on beneficiaries.
But the Ministry of Social Development (MSD) said it does not plan to use generative AI or automated decision making in that way.
A new clause in the Social Services Amendment Bill, which has passed its first reading, vastly expands the decisions that can be made by automated systems to include sanctions.
Cabinet has agreed to introduce a suite of new obligations and sanctions for job seekers this year.
The Salvation Army is warning that if the door opens for AI to decide benefit sanctions, it cannot be easily closed.
Policy analyst Ana Ika said the organisation opposes the government’s amended bill, which would allow more sanctions under the traffic light system as well as paving the way for AI to make more decisions on benefits.
“The bill will make things a lot worse for those that we support, it will push a lot more people into poverty. It will create a lot more barriers and difficulties for those that we support to be able to access the help that they need.”
She said a clause expanding AI opened the door for the ministry to automate decisions relating to sanctions.
“If you open this legal loophole here, how far can you take it? AI is artificial, but it’s not that intelligent – the intelligent part is still being worked out, but because of that there are decisions that could be made that are unfair, that does marginalise those who are on the fringes of society and makes things a lot worse.”
Both the Salvation Army and Law Society have called for the clause to be scrapped, in submissions to the select committee considering the bill.
The Salvation Army’s submission stated that automatic decision making “cannot account for the complexities we often see in the individuals we support”, such as financial hardship, addictions, mental health issues or unstable living conditions.
“Automated systems risk making inappropriate decisions that could increase hardship for those we support,” it said.
MSD said it plans to use basic AI to decide whether people applying to renew their Jobseeker benefit have met their obligations, but automative decision-making would not be used to decline these.
Under the proposed changes, people on this benefit would have to re-apply every six months – instead of annually.
Just as TDB warned you, big data fascism is here.
MSD are attempting to make life as difficult as possible for beneficiaries and are forcing them to reapply every 6months rather than annually. MSD don’t want to hire the extra staff to process those extra work requirement check ups, so they are fucking handing it over to AI.
Jesus fucking wept!
AI trawling your social media feeds to see if you are well enough to work and cutting you off if it decides you are.
This is the horror that Bill English and the company his daughter owns are bringing in with their Big Data Social Investment model.
I have deep fears that removing 7AA from Oranga Tamariki will green light a tsunami of uplifts and create another lost generation of Māori kids.
The Social Investment Model uses big data algorithms to pinpoint when a child needs uplifting. For it to work properly and deliver the savings downstream to the State, the uplift must be as soon as Orac tells the State to uplift.
When they switch it on, it is going to generate an enormous tsunami of uplifts.
Removing 7AA removes the requirement for OT to talk to Māori, which is a green light for mass uplifts.
Placing uplifted Māori children into Māori Community Groups rather than the statistically likely abuse within State care is an actual solution (as long as the funding follows the child).
What ACT, National and NZ First are really fighting for here is to turn Orac on and let the magic of AI determine which child gets uplifted and which one doesn’t!
Think of it as a cross between Kindergarten Cop, Minority Report and The Handmaid’s Tale.
If the realty of this hard Right Government gaining the power to use AI to invade your life and rip children from parents doesn’t scare the bejesus out of you, I don’t know what will.
The State taking a child from a parent is the most extreme power imbalance we have in a liberal progressive society. If we uplift children into State care where they statistically stand to be abuse more than if they had been left in the community, you have a very damaged and broken system that requires more oversight, not less!
What the Social Investment Model intends to do is unapologetically supercharge the uplift process and weaponise it against those Orac warns us will cost the State more money down stream.
This isn’t about the welfare of the child, it is about the welfare of the State’s accounts!
We need more oversight here, not less and the willingness of this Government to embark upon this radical yet invisible welfare experiment should be ringing alarm bells everywhere.
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