Best of Business

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Best of Business is the home of all things business at Newstalk ZB, from morning market updates right through to incisive interviews with New Zealand’s top business leaders and decision makers. Whether you’re a small business owner or interested in what’s going on in the Big End of Town, this podcast encompasses the sharpest voices and minds in the world of business.

  1. 1h ago

    Jack Tame: AI is breaking out

    It’s been yet another week of yet more unsettling news. The conflict in the Middle East appears to be escalating again. As of this morning, we face even higher tariffs in the U.S than under President Trump’s previous measure. But if there’s one piece of unsettling news I think we probably haven’t grappled with sufficiently, it’s the latest humbling episode with one of the world’s biggest AI companies.   OpenAI admitted yesterday that one of its new models has autonomously broken free of its shackles, escaped from the walled-off environment where it was supposed to be safely tested, gained access to the wider internet, and successfully hacked another company.   Legally it's a grey area. There's a pretty strong argument that this was a crime. If a person did it, theoretically they could be charged. But it wasn’t a person. It was an autonomous AI model going to fairly extreme lengths in order to solve a problem that had been posed by its creators. Again, it was supposed to be contained. Those same masters who posed it a challenge had thought it was confined in what they call a sandbox, a sort of digital playpen where you can wall in a model and stop it from escaping to the outside world. But like a toddler who pulls themself up and climbs out of a cot, this model got free. AI models are now so good at exploiting cyber vulnerabilities, they can exploit the vulnerabilities of their creators. Ultimately, the model solved the problem it had been set. But at some cost.   There were heaps of details that made this whole episode particularly interesting. For starters, it looks like OpenAI didn’t really understand what its own model was doing. They couldn’t tell in real time that it had escaped and was roaming the internet at large. They couldn’t pull a metaphorical power cable out of the wall, because they only realised what it had done after the fact.   But if there’s one thing to be grateful for in this instance, it’s the target of the AI hack. It wasn’t a bank or a crypto-currency exchange or a weapons system. It was a start up called Hugging Face which works as an interface for open source AI. If anything, the boss of Hugging Face sounded kind of stoked that his business had been targeted.  Of course this is the sort of thing that experts have been warning about for ages. At the most extreme end of the AI doomerism scale, they’ve suggested these systems could ultimately decide humans are an inconvenience and that the world would be a much better place if computer systems were in charge. And arguably one very important step on the road to AI Armageddon is this - a model breaking free. If you can’t be bothered engaging with AI, or even if you think AI is overhyped...this week marks a significant milestone. In one sense, it is incredibly impressive that an autonomous system, operating completely free of human control, is able to pull off something with this complexity. In another sense, it is incredibly unsettling. If this is where the technology is today, who can honestly say where it might be in five or ten years’ time? LISTEN ABOVE  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

  2. 1d ago

    Jamie Mackay: The Country host on the impacts of the current El Niño weather pattern

    New Zealand’s agriculture sector should be able to withstand the current El Niño weather pattern, although it may lead to increased farm costs, an agricultural economist says. Earth Sciences New Zealand this month confirmed El Niño conditions have been reached the tropical Pacific and are expected to strongly influence New Zealand's weather.  The Country's Jamie Mackay explained further. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

  3. 1d ago

    Stew Hamilton: Mercury Energy CEO on the company taking a 12.7 percent stake in Datagrid NZ

    One of New Zealand's big power companies is throwing their support behind a firm planning to build a large data centre in Southland. Mercury has invested $53 million for a 12.7 percent minority equity stake in Datagrid NZ. Mercury CEO Stew Hamilton says the company's looking to invest in a new growth sector - and there's potential to make more investments like this down the track. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

  4. 1d ago

    Murray Olds: Australian correspondent on Australia's unemployment rate remaining at 4.4 percent in June

    Australia's unemployment rate stayed at 4.4 percent in June, according to the latest Labour Force data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The rise in employment was driven by a 47,000-person rise in part-time work, pushing it to more than 4.6 million people, with full-time employment also rising up by 29,300 to over 10 million people. Australian correspondent Murray Olds says the Reserve Bank is looking for unemployment figures to go higher in order to cool the economy down. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

  5. 2d ago

    Jenee Tibshraeny: NZ Herald Wellington business editor on rents rising at their slowest rate in 25 years

    Recent data has unveiled a silver lining in the latest June-quarter inflation figures. Rents rose at their slowest rate, annually, in 25 years, according to Stats NZ. The country’s stock of rents rose by 0.5 percent between the June 2025 and 2026 quarters, continuing the trend of softening increases that began towards the end of 2024. NZ Herald Wellington business editor Jenee Tibshraeny explained further. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

  6. 2d ago

    Andrew Curtayne: Milford Asset Management expert on the factors impacting the tech stocks

    It's been an interesting time for the tech sector, with many big companies reporting their results. Tech stocks recently reversed some of the recent selloff last night - with the Nasdaq up 1.9 percent. Milford Asset Management's Andrew Curtayne explained further. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

  7. 2d ago

    Dr Kerry McInerny: Auckland University AI expert on OpenAI's artificial intelligence hacking into another company

    ChatGPT maker OpenAI said its artificial intelligence system hacked into another AI company on its own - and they're launching a full investigation. AI startup Hugging Face said last week that it had detected an intrusion into its data processing systems that it suspected was caused by an AI agent acting on its own.  Auckland University AI expert Dr Kerry McInerny says AI has been used to hack companies in the past, but this incident raises new concerns about cybersecurity.  "My fear is that we focus a lot on the capacities of the agent of the AI itself, and that distracts away from the people who I think we should really be holding responsible - which is OpenAI itself."  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

  8. 2d ago

    Gary Mortimer: Queensland University of Technology Marketing Professor on the rise of free 'dopamine apps'

    A new trend has emerged, where people are ordering fake takeaways and filling online shopping carts knowing they'll never receive a thing.  This viral trend is gaining popularity, with one platform, FoodNeverComes, claiming nearly 1 million 'cravings satisfied' to date. Queensland University of Technology, Professor of Marketing and Consumer Behaviour, says this gives consumers a version of the online shopping experience in order to stave off boredom.  "The research shows that we're more inclined to do online shopping...generally in the evenings. We've got home from work, we've had dinner, we sit down and go - I might just pick up my phone and see what's available online."  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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About

Best of Business is the home of all things business at Newstalk ZB, from morning market updates right through to incisive interviews with New Zealand’s top business leaders and decision makers. Whether you’re a small business owner or interested in what’s going on in the Big End of Town, this podcast encompasses the sharpest voices and minds in the world of business.

Information

  • Channel
    Newstalk ZB
  • Creator
    Newstalk ZB
  • Years Active
    2021 - 2026
  • Episodes
    2K
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Newstalk ZB
  • Show Website
    Best of Business

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