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Another high-profile New Zealand businessman wants answers about Icehouse Ventures’ relationship with Chinese artificial intelligence giant iFlytek.
Investigating the Circuit of Things Removed He exposed links between New Zealand companies backed by government funds and investments and the Chinese company whose technology is used in human rights abuses of Uighurs in Xinjiang, China.
Icehouse Ventures (IHV), the investment arm of business incubator The Icehouse, signed a partnership with iFlytek in 2019, but after questions from Stuff Circuit, its board requested an investigation.
Sir Stephen Tindall, who has a small stake in Icehouse Ventures through investment company K One W One, said he was concerned about the continuation of the partnership.
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Better known as the founder of The Warehouse, Tindall is a director and majority shareholder of K One W One.
He told Stuff Circuit: “We knew that IHV had a relationship with iFlytek, but we were not aware of any concerns about iFlytek’s business conduct or practices.”
“We are looking for a better clarification of the relationship.”
Lawrence Smith / Stuff
Warehouse founder, investor and philanthropist Sir Stephen Tindall wants answers about Icehouse Ventures’ relationship with the blacklisted Chinese company iFlytek.
Tindall joins KiwiSaver Simplicity supplier managing director Sam Stubbs, another Icehouse Ventures shareholder, seeking answers.
Last week, Stubbs told Stuff Circuit: “This is something we take seriously. This is a company that has been blacklisted in the US This is a serious problem that involves human rights. ”
The connection is potentially compromising for Simplicity, which has spoken openly about ethical investing and last year said it would not invest in companies that violate UN human rights protocols.
“While we are minority shareholders, we remain co-owners of Icehouse Ventures and we have a responsibility to them, our members and the New Zealand public, to learn from this and improve where necessary,” said Stubbs.
Concerns have been raised publicly since 2017 about the use of iFlytek’s voice recognition technology to record the voices of Uighurs. The ‘voice prints’ are stored in a database and can be used for identification.
Removed He also identified concerns about the use of iFlytek robots to teach Mandarin to Uighur children in kindergartens, and their AI in “smart courts” and “smart prosecutions.”
Icehouse Ventures receives $ 700,000 a year from the government’s innovation agency, Callaghan.
In addition to revealing the partnerships between iFlytek and companies that are supported by the New Zealand government, Removed it also prompted the government-owned Aspire NZ Seed Fund to admit that it knew that iFlytek had been blacklisted for human rights violations when it went ahead with investments in those companies.
Removed it was made with the support of NZ On Air.
