Connecting Young Kiwis in AI

Young Kiwis in AI (YKIA) is a nationwide community for young New Zealanders working with artificial intelligence: university and secondary students, self-taught builders, early-career developers, and founders. We run a monthly online catchup on Discord plus in-person meetups around the country, where members share what they are actually building. It is free to join and free to attend.

Start building. Pick a real problem in your own life, a friend’s, or a local business, and use AI coding tools to build a small solution for it. Almost every speaker we have hosted says the same two things: a handful of real projects beats a polished CV, and you have to talk publicly about the work so that people can find you. The third step is getting in a room with people already doing it, which is exactly what our meetups and monthly online catchup are for.

Anyone based in Aotearoa New Zealand who is young and keen on AI. That includes university students, secondary students, self-taught developers, early-career professionals, and founders building AI products. You do not need to work in AI already and you do not need a project on the go. Curiosity is genuinely enough.

Fill in the short join form on this site with your name, email, age, and a line about why you are interested. Most people get a Discord invite emailed straight back; a few applications get a quick look from a human first. Once you are in, introduce yourself in the #introductions channel and you will start seeing event announcements and member channels.