The Fact Check First Initiative

"If a copycat can kill your product by reading your public updates — you have a feature, not a business." Ruben Dominguez at The VC Corner wrote this week about the death of the ex*****on safety net.

Agentic AI has collapsed the gap. What once took a 5-person team now takes a weekend. Building in public used to be safe because copying was expensive. That's no longer true.

So what's your actual moat?
At Verify, ours isn't code. It's the humans in the loop, domain experts who bring judgment. You can clone our interface. You can't clone people.

🔗 Link to the full VC Corner article https://zurl.co/RAtrK

“What you don’t govern, governs you.” - Lee Wilson, AI Changemaker of the Year 2025
Great to be included in Top 5 issues for directors in 2026: are you ready?
https://zurl.co/Dcn0v
"AI has crossed a threshold. It is no longer just supporting decisions; it is making them. Agentic AI systems now plan, analyse and act across core organisational functions, reshaping operating models in real time. The issue is no longer adoption, but assurance – knowing where automation sits, what it decides, and whether its outputs can be trusted.

As AI agents accelerate the pace of decision-making, traditional governance and assurance models are under strain. Accountability still sits with the organisation – even when decisions are made by software. Boards are increasingly expected to be able to explain how decisions were authorised, what data informed them, and whether those processes can be verified. Oversight of automated decision-making has become a test of governance credibility."

Find out more at: https://zurl.co/Dcn0v

Top 5 issues for directors in 2026: are you ready? | IoD NZ Boards face rising pressure on performance, trust and judgement. These are the five key themes shaping governance in the year ahead.

Privacy Week 2026 is a timely reminder that trust, transparency, and privacy are becoming foundational requirements in the age of AI.

From 11–15 May, the theme Foundations of the Future | He Tūāpapa Anamata highlights the importance of building systems, services, and technologies that protect people while enabling innovation.

As AI adoption accelerates across government and organisations, privacy can no longer be treated as an afterthought. It must be built into the design of systems from the beginning.

The Office of the Privacy Commissioner is running five days of free webinars covering privacy rights, responsibilities, and the growing implications of AI and emerging technologies.

https://zurl.co/JDKZw

Even if you cannot attend live, recordings and slides will be available afterward.

This is essential learning for:
• Public sector leaders
• AI practitioners
• Educators
• Data and digital teams
• Business owners
• Anyone working with personal information

Strong privacy foundations are not barriers to innovation — they are what make trusted innovation possible.