At a packed tech summit in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea's leaders are making it clear they want to embrace artificial intelligence, from classrooms and hospitals to government procurement and public service jobs.But as PNG races to adopt AI while still building its digital foundations, questions are emerging about access, data security, jobs, and who really benefits from this technological leap.In this episode of ABC Radio Australia's Politok host Scott Waide speaks with PNG's Prime Minister James Marape about his vision for the country.Talent list:James Marape, PNG Prime MinisterSteven Matainaho, Secretary of Papua New Guinea Department of Information and Communication TechnologyJames Inglis, NiuPay Chief Executive OfficerYuambari Haihuie, former Deputy Director Transparency International Papua New GuineaAlice Ashwin, gamerThis edition of Politok was a repeat of the program broadcast on 10th February 2026CreditsKuntamari Crofts, ProducerJordan Fennell, Supervising ProducerInga Stünzner, Executive ProducerJulian McKenzie, Sound EngineerImage DetailsPNG's Prime Minister James Marape is betting on AI to build a merit-based Papua New Guinea(Supplied: Facebook)Program:More from PolitokPacific, Papua New Guinea, Government and PoliticsTranscriptScott Waide I'm here at the hotel in Port Moresby in a big conference room and it's filled with people from all over for the country's biggest tech summit. There's probably around 700 people and it's everyone from tech enthusiasts to the Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea. And P&G's leaders are embracing the artificial intelligence revolution and I'm here at this summit to find out what P&G's AI plan is and how people feel about it. Hi, I'm the host of ABC's show Poly Talk and I want to ask you in one word, how would you describe the future of P&G and artificial intelligence? Vox pop In one word, exciting. Vox pop I believe in P&G. If we implement AI, it will help us a lot. Scott Waide What are your fears personally about the use of artificial intelligence and its development at the moment? Vox pop I think there's fear around losing jobs, which is a real thing, especially if you're in the older end and you're not as savvy. If AI comes and takes over my work or there's a system that will now do my job. What else can I do? Scott Waide Okay, I'm taking my seat now because Prime Minister James Marape is about to speak. He's the keynote speaker. James Marape Welcome, especially to all of you who have come in, to the most diverse nation on planet Earth. Digital transformation is here to stay. The world is moving faster into that space. Papua New Guinea cannot afford to be left behind. We have an opportunity to leapfrog many into the digital space. For those of you who operate data centers elsewhere, I hear Oracle's in town. I hear Google's in town. I hear Space X's in town. We are a middle ground to all of you. So long as you pay your taxes, we welcome all of you. May God bless every one of you. See you around. Thank you. Scott Waide Hi, I'm Scott Waide and this is Politok. Today we're talking about artificial intelligence, the technology that's transforming governments, economies and everyday life around the world. And Papua New Guinea is stepping into that future fast. AI is arriving here at the same time that the country is trying to build its digital foundations. From cybersecurity to e-government to getting more people online. And suddenly, PNG's leaders are talking about AI in classrooms, in hospitals, in government services. So what does embracing AI actually look like in a country where half the population still has limited Internet access? Who benefits? Who gets left behind? And what risks come with opening the door to a technology the world is still trying to control? Today we're at the PNG Digital Transformation Summit. Where government leaders, global tech giants, developers and students are pitching, debating and imagining what an AI-powered PNG could be. After the Prime Minister gave his welcome speech, I managed to catch him for an interview. To ask him directly about his plans for AI use in Papua New Guinea. James Marape So AI is a product we want to embrace. But at the same time we're sensitive to the downsides of AI. I made it no secret I want to block pornography and illegal activities on the Internet space. But we will use AI for, for me, first thing first, two key things. Procurement of contracts. So we're now developing an AI tool to procure state contracts. So enough of the days where secretaries are pushing paper around the offices from office to office. It's much easier and safer and better efficient. Corruption free. The speed of AI is amazing. And it's a tool that I want to use to ramp up efficiency in our government system. Before I go to the 27 elections I want to have set up an AI-assisted system for procurement of contracts. AI in my view is nothing to be feared about. Something that we can use. Government can use and government want to procure to assist efficiency, effectiveness, eliminate corruption and human involvement. And arrive at a merit-based system we have in our country. Scott Waide The Prime Minister's vision for AI is ambitious. Faster government, fewer human hands and less room for corruption. But turning political intent into functioning systems is another thing entirely. Inside the government that work is already underway. And the person responsible for making it real is the Secretary of PNG's Department of Information, Communications and Technology, Stephen Matainaho. Secretary, thank you very much for your time. There's a lot happening in this room and, you know, 200, 250 people attending. My particular interest is in artificial intelligence and how it fits into this whole ecosystem that you've created here. What does AI mean for the next generation of Papua New Guineans? Steven Matainaho AI obviously is changing every sector. It's disrupting every sector such that it's changing the way we do business. Whether it be in an AI government, how government interacts with its citizens. AI is also disrupting the administrative process. So, for example, our immigration system, it's using AI to pre-approve all the visas for incoming. And it's doing that in split seconds now compared to before. And this accountability goes up, transparency goes up and we're able to do business more efficiently. Scott Waide Give me a comparison of what it was like before. How much time did it take to process a visa compared to now with the aid of artificial intelligence? Steven Matainaho Oh, absolutely. So, if someone were to, you know, apply for a visa to come into the country, they obviously would upload, for example, support letter, invitation letter, in PDF format, even balance statement of their bank. So, what happens is once that's uploaded and it's loaded into the system, you have someone at the administrative side will have to manually go through all that and tick the boxes. So, it can take anywhere from obviously one day, but it can at some point it could even possibly take a month, even two months, depending on the demand, how many applications are coming in. So, it's manual checks. Now with AI, AI goes through, reads everything instantly, understands the parameters and then it pre-issues. So, they use the backend administrator now, just logs on and just takes a look at it and then just approves it. So, we're going from one to two months all the way down to seconds. Scott Waide So, the Prime Minister has been talking a lot about artificial intelligence, its use in government. How do you transform a political statement from non-experts into workable solutions for ordinary Papua New Guineans? Steven Matainaho Prime Minister, Honorable James Marape made an announcement that we need to harness AI to combat corruption, improve transparency and accountability and also transform and improve efficiencies within government. So, we took that statement on board and we actually did pilot a e-recruitment system driven by AI. We did a pilot run with Department of Personal Management. I think it's just over 200 positions and we piloted that over one month. They received a couple of thousands of applications. Now, we trained the LLM to read through all the CVs, all the cover letters, cross-check against job description competency, experience and qualification requirements and the AI did the long listing and the AI did the short listing. Now, that removed any space for any manual or human manipulation. Now, after we did the short list, there's some process that still have to be done like face-to-face interviews and then once that scoring is inserted in the system, then the AI also generates the offer letter and the AI, the LLM to be specific, then generates the contract. So, everything is all done digitally. Scott Waide But government departments aren't developing these systems on their own. The P&G government has partnered with Port Moresby-based FinTech NewPay, founded in 2018 by Australian entrepreneur James Inglis. The company is behind P&G's new AI-powered visa system, the one Secretary Matai Naho was referring to. NewPay is also working with the Lands Department to digitize lands management, a system that underpins the country's land tax regime. Now, with investment from Kinabank, the company has sights set on expanding across the Pacific. And James Inglis is here at the Digital Summit in Port Moresby. So, I caught up with him to ask what his technology actually means for P&G. So, James, thank you very much for your time. Now, how did NewPay first connect with the P&G government and who approached who and what was the initial problem that you were asked to solve? James Inglis The idea of the business originally came from the fact that I was actually already doing business here in P&G. And so, my co-founder and business partner, Jason Kuczynski, and I had interacted with government agencies on an almost weekly basis. We've stood in line at Lands, we'd stood in line at the old Bullerpendy House Department of Finance office early in the morning trying to get out, make a payment for X, Y, or Z. And we kept asking ourselves in just moments of frustration, why isn't anyone bringing service online for government? Why can't I make this payment online? Now, as the name says, NewPay, we started this business trying to just figure out digital payments. In our naivety, we thought that we could solve all of this. If we just bought payments online, that was the roadblock that was stopping service delivery digitally for government. You end up replacing huge swathes of those agencies' platforms and that's what we did with the Department of Lands and Physical Planning. So, we started with Lands purely to the idea of being trying to help them fix their revenue collection challenges. They were collecting about $9 million or so a year manually. Long lines, etc. If you wanted to find out what you owed, you had to go stand in line one day a week when that counter was open, get your statement of account and then come back and make that payment. And hopefully, you'll get a receipt a couple of days later. That's what we were brought in with Lands to solve. Where we are today is very, very different though, Scott. We are now effectively, our system, eLands and goLands at the Department of Lands and Physical Planning is the digital, well, it's the title management system of the country. But it's solving really the challenges that agency has that to know what they are, you have to be here. Scott Waide What is Newplay's long-term vision for artificial intelligence use in Papua New Guinea and what role do you see yourselves playing in building the country's digital future? James Inglis We are the first company to bring in generative AI for a government workload in PNG. So, for the better part of a year now, we've been working with immigration to use generative AI to process documents as part of the visa and work permit processing system in PNG. Now, that has been an amazing success, an amazing success process, you know, almost a couple of hundred thousand documents on their behalf. Tens of thousands of man hours that we used previously to scrutinize these documents are now being done by a higher layer. It means that the staff in these agencies are actually able to focus on their actual job instead of, does this passport number match up with all the documents that have been sent in by one particular individual, for an example. And so, the government's seen this and the public advisory team, people like Stephen, Secretary Matt Nijho has seen this and said, well, how can we take these learnings and these successes and carry this across other agencies, you know, in a safe and sustainable way? Because, you know, you can bring players from all over seas here into market, but unless you understand the market and unless your solution is sustainable, it's going to fall over in no time. Scott Waide One of the biggest concerns that has come out of this summit has been who owns PNG's data. So, posing that question to you again. James Inglis PNG owns PNG's data. So, if, you know, again, we host data for our platforms in with Amazon Web Services or AWS in the Sydney region, but in our contracts and also as stipulated in the Digital Government Act 2022, PNG government owns all of their own data. We don't own it. Microsoft doesn't own it. Amazon doesn't own it. Google doesn't own it. It's PNG government data. I think the misconception here that I keep hearing about is the difference between sovereignty and localization of data. You can have sovereign data overseas. Other countries host their data in Australia's, you know, hyper cloud data centers, right, without issue. But why is it an issue here? And I think a big piece of this is education and it's also trust. Scott Waide Why did you choose to host your systems on Amazon Web Services in Australia and what conversations did you have with the PNG government about data sovereignty and control? James Inglis The biggest challenges that we see that the ICT agencies within government departments face is data security. You know, data sovereignty is a great conversation to have, but ultimately we've seen a large number of large cyber scale, a large number of large cyber security events happen in this country. Ransomware attacks happening across government agencies and department finance in the early 2020s and even a couple this year, banks, government agencies, beginning to absolutely smash on premise installations. At a certain point, we just need to have a rational conversation and say, what is more important today? You know, we can satisfy and the government is satisfied because the government is hosting their own data in the hyper scale providers like AWS and Google, et cetera, Microsoft. But data security and cyber security is the real concern. Scott Waide What protections do Pacific governments have if new pay is acquired by a foreign company or investor? James Inglis Well, recently we've been through this process. So we've recently finalized a funding round where we've been partially acquired by a ASX listed bank, being local bank, Ekena Bank of all people. There are protections there and around it's the kind of company that they would want to be dealing with. And I can assure you the level of vigilance and vetting that goes into these deals is incredibly significant. And it's the reason why, as far as we can tell, it's the largest pure tech equity deal that's happened. It's the only pure tech equity deal that's happened in PNG. And from what we can see, the largest in the Pacific. And it's one that we hope that others will follow from here. We need those enabling environments. We need the incubation hubs. We need the corporates that are willing to put in seed funding to some of these ideas because it shouldn't just be us. We are a PNG company, our head office is here. But it's disappointing that we are the first in that space because it really shouldn't be. Scott Waide From both the government and industry, the tone here is overwhelmingly optimistic about AI, faster visas, cleaner procurement, smarter systems. But not everyone is convinced that artificial intelligence will automatically deliver integrity or fairness, especially in a country with deep governance challenges, limited connectivity and a long history of outsourced systems going wrong. Yuambari Haihuie So how will it be procured? Who will set the design? Where is the data coming from? How will it be cleansed? How will it be used and protected? These are all considerations. Scott Waide Yuomari Haihuye used to work with Transparency International PNG and is now studying for his master's in public policy at the Australian National University. Yuambari Haihuie If you have a good tool, even if it's a good tool in the hands of a bad actor, it becomes a bad tool because it perpetuates existing norms and standards. And it might be difficult to then utilize the system independent of the actors. Scott Waide Prime Minister James Marape has said that PNG is going to make a bet on artificial intelligence to build a merit-based Papua New Guinea. What do you make of that statement? Yuambari Haihuie I think in terms of the announcement, it's good to see that the government is committed to taking on corruption. The problem is really the practicality of the solutions that are being offered and whether they address the underlying issues, which are not really the systems, but the people that administer the systems. Scott Waide One of the companies that the PNG government has engaged is Niupay, that is using generative artificial intelligence and its systems within the government. How important is it for there to be transparency around how the government is engaging with companies like this? Yuambari Haihuie I can't speak to the specifics of Niupay and its proprietors, but there has been a history in PNG of outsourcing systems and tools. And we've seen issues in terms of procurement, where fees have been maybe exorbitant or above the market rate, where there's been close bidding and there's been issues in terms of the implementation of IT systems. There's been an issue also historically of interoperability and sharing of the data between agencies. So there's often siloed information that's only between the agent and the government counterpart, as opposed to the public. So we've had issues recently, for instance, with the collection of data for the National Identification Project in Papua New Guinea. And we've seen, for instance, procurement of equipment to help with the collection of that data under circumstances that were questionable. And so it's really this procurement and making sure that the system is fit for purpose, that the data is protected and accessible by citizens, as well as making sure that the outputs are delivered in a way that is actually fit for purpose for the country. Scott Waide In a country where many people still struggle with connectivity and digital literacy, what do you think about the dangers around that AI could widen things like inequality, where some citizens are part of the digital state and others are just getting left behind? Yuambari Haihuie So you do have this digital divide that exists in PNG, not just because of infrastructure, but also because of literacy rates, as you mentioned. And also just the tools that are designed often serve an urban elite who can engage in processes. We have the failure of simple information being disseminated non-electronically out to the regions, out to the provinces. And so often when we come to these new solutions, and not to be a cynic about such solutions, we often have systems that are then left to atrophy. We don't use systems of getting information out to people in person or at the subnational level. And we often have these projects that seem good on paper that are supported by partners and donors and supported by the government of today, but they're not sustainable and not entrenched in the lives of people or the systems that we already have. Scott Waide What do you believe the government should be focusing on as it takes this step into AI? Yuambari Haihuie One of the issues that we have is that agencies in Papua New Guinea often don't cooperate in terms of sharing of information, ensuring that data is consolidated. We don't have, for instance, existing data on the census and the population in the country. So there are huge data gaps. And while I welcome efforts by the government to address corruption, if we're building a system on faulty data, faulty basis, or agencies that can't cooperate or don't want to cooperate or share information, we're setting ourselves up for failure. And so these are lessons that need to be learned. There has to be an open sourcing of ideas on how we can improve governance. If it's true AI, then sure. But let's make sure that we have other people and other actors looking at it instead of just the agency that has to make the decision and the entity that supplies the procured AI services. We've seen in the past that that kind of arrangement doesn't serve Papua New Guineans well. And we have to make sure that this is an open conversation for the interests of all, not just a buzzword that's used to encourage confidence from others but doesn't actually result in change in Papua New Guinea. Scott Waide These concerns go to the heart of how AI is governed. Who sets the rules? Who enforces them and who is protected when systems go wrong? At this summit, the government says it's already working on answers. So I put these questions back to the DICT Secretary, Stephen Matainaho. Steven Matainaho Yeah, I think generative AI, as with any technology, comes with both opportunities and challenges. So it depends how we leverage on it. And with those challenges, this is where government needs to work out how to put safeguards or safe rails on how we adopt it and how we use it. Keep in mind that AI can be used for good and it can be used for, I'll use the word, bad. So this is where, from a policy perspective, we need to put rail guards around how we ethically adopt it and how it's being used at the consumer level and being used at the administrative level. The onus is on the Department of ICT to develop policies around it, safe use. This is also why we started looking at social media policy, e-safety policy, and then adoption. We are about to release an AI adoption framework to guide, from security, ethical, technology, investment perspective, how we adopt and use generative AI. Scott Waide It's evolving at a speed where there are also falsehoods and all these negativities associated with artificial intelligence. How are we policing that? Steven Matainaho There are different dimensions around safeguards, but I can point out one specific, and that is if a generative AI looks at your application, let's take e-recruitment for example. It's automating the administrative process. It's reading your personal data. It's processing it against other data. And there's a question now where that data sits. Who takes that data? Is it on the cloud? Is it off-prem? Who gives the consent? I'm talking about now data governance safeguards. There are other safeguards that we also have to consider. So these are safeguards now that we may need to, as fast as we're implementing this and adopting AI, we also need to be very tactful and be very meticulous in ensuring that citizens are still put first in terms of their rights. Scott Waide But this debate isn't just happening in boardrooms and in government offices. Walking through the summit, there's another group drawing a crowd. Young people, gamers, students, early career workers. This is the generation that will grow up with AI in their classrooms and live with the consequences in the job market. Alice Ashwin AI for Papua New Guinea. If I'm being completely honest, we're not ready for it. We're not ready for it because of the way you see it being used nowadays. My name's Alice Leela Ashwin and currently as my nine to five job, I'm a PR and marketing for the Airways Hotel as well as the Constantino Group. On the outside, I am a freelance MC for events and I also stream the game Call of Duty Mobile and I create digital content for companies as well. Scott Waide How much of gaming is part of your life? Alice Ashwin I'd like to say about 60%. Yeah, 60%. Scott Waide That's a sizable chunk. Tell me how much of AI you use in your daily life. Alice Ashwin I use it a lot actually. I use it in terms of helping me really quickly chuck descriptions together. When time is restrictive for me, I like to chuck things onto a chat GTP. It's like, does it make sense? Put it together. I'm missing some things. I can't think right now. Do this. Scott Waide Things like voice replication, voice clones, video generation, all that. In your field, do you think it's going to affect the manner in which people are recruited and jobs are being designed? Alice Ashwin I think it will affect it. Because a good example is there was this one song that I was hearing on TikTok. Little did I know that that was an AI song. And I had no idea. It sounded like one of the artists here in PNG, one of the from New Island, until I was told otherwise. And then when I searched it, everyone was saying, yeah, it was AI. I'm like, oh, my goodness. So this is an issue for a lot of people, creatives, especially artists. Scott Waide From your perspective, being in the media, being a gamer, what does AI mean for Papua New Guinea? Alice Ashwin AI for Papua New Guinea. If I'm being completely honest, we're not ready for it. We're just on the tip of it, tip of the iceberg. We're the tip of the iceberg. But we're not ready for it yet. A lot of the percentage of our population is illiterate. We don't really understand how to use technology. Some basics of computer literacy is what a lot of people lack. You put that in AI, we're just not ready for it yet. It's an advanced technology. But I've seen the bad side of it in terms of how people use AI to manipulate pictures in a way and post it up. It's like cyber bullying and stuff like that. And I feel like it's the, I guess it's the rush of something new that everyone wants to jump on and no proper guidance as to how to use it or the effects that it can cause on one's mental health and stuff like that. I'm pretty sure that if we had guidance put in place or stuff like that, that would limit the amount of cyber bullying when it comes to distortion of pictures. Scott Waide What do you think of the efforts that are being put in by government to develop policy and legislation and seeing all that being talked about here? Alice Ashwin I think it's good. It's a way forward. It's a step in the right direction. This is something that we cannot avoid. But I think still a lot more needs to be done because every day it's bustling. Scott Waide Politok is hosted by me, Scott Waide. Our producer is Kuntamari Crofts. Our supervising producer is Jordan Fennell. And our executive producer is Faleagafulu, Inga Stünzner.