By Andi Cockroft
From time to time we hear the comment that CORANZ is “using AI a fair bit” these days.
That’s true.
Let’s talk about it.
We use email.
We use word processors.
We use search engines.
We use digital cameras instead of film.
And yes - we use modern research and drafting tools.
But here is the part that matters.
The ideas are human.
The direction is human.
The experience comes from decades of involvement in rivers, access issues, policy battles, submissions, and on-the-ground observation. The topics we choose are driven by what we see happening - in legislation, in councils, in catchments, in forests, and in our own backyards.
No algorithm wakes up concerned about Canterbury rivers.
No software remembers Environment Canterbury commissioners.
No machine notices erosion on a favourite walking track.
People do.
AI helps us research faster. It helps us structure complex legislation into readable summaries. It helps us maintain a consistent house style. It helps us draft efficiently.
It does not decide what we think.
Every article is reviewed.
Every position is chosen.
Every word is ultimately approved by a human.
And responsibility rests entirely with us.
That’s transparency.
The alternative would be fewer articles, slower responses to policy changes, and less scrutiny of legislation that often runs to hundreds of pages. If using modern tools allows us to produce more informed commentary, more quickly, then that strengthens the work - it does not weaken it.
We are not outsourcing judgment.
We are using tools to support it.
There is also a quiet irony in the criticism. Many of the same people who object to AI will happily use GPS, online mapping, digital weather forecasting, and modern navigation tools when heading into the outdoors. Tools evolve. Judgment remains essential.
CORANZ exists to protect outdoor recreation, access, and environmental integrity. The methods by which we draft and research articles do not alter that mission.
If anything, they allow us to pursue it more effectively.
Transparency matters. So here it is plainly:
We use modern tools.
We think for ourselves.
We stand behind what we publish.
Unapologetically.
So folks use Spellcheck rather than a dictionary, Google rather than an encyclopedia, Grammarly instead of a good education and a calculator because they are hopeless at arithmetic. But using AI professionally as a workplace tool gets somehow branded as “AI Slop” or worse. Wake up people it’s the twenty-first century and the third decade to boot!
If AI replaces editors, so what! The CORANZ articles in recent times have still been accurate, informative and logical. Long may it last.
So true Andi
I wish we humans hadn’t developed all of our advanced technology.
If we hadn’t, we would not have missed it.
Technology has accelerated everything .. both the good, and the bad.
Humanity now appears fatally locked into a battle with our own success.
Technology has multiplied that success .. and is driving our accelerating progress towards the metaphorical brick wall that signals the extreme limit of what’s sustainable.
The global elite .. people like Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, and Mark Zuckerberg, and many others, variously like to paint themselves as champions, and saviours .. but their technology epitomises the cause of the problem.
We’re pushing everything else off the planet
In recent centuries, we’ve developed this thing called the sanctity of human life.
It’s our first line of defence against evil .. but it’s also manifested the biggest threat to our existence.
Sadly, we’re taking out most wildlife on the planet in the meantime …
BUT .. we’re all human. We’re all fallible. We’re all hypocrites. We’ve all got FOMO. While technology is here .. and while the party is still going on .. we may as well all make the most of it …