Into the digital wild: Fiona’s Master of AI

11 September 2025

Faculty of Science, AI, Science and technology, Graduation

For her Master of AI, Filipino student Fiona Marie Bautista went deep into the wilderness - digitally at least. Her project? Working on a prototype AI tool to help protect New Zealand's wildlife by identifying predators.

"It's such worthwhile work and I hope to extend it for my PhD," says Fiona, 26, who worked with data from feral cat sightings on the remote subantarctic Auckland Islands, known as either Maungahuka or Mōtū Maha. (Sadly, she didn't get to go there.)

The cats are ferocious predators which decimate native birdlife. The software under development can scan camera images, spot predators like stoats and feral cats, and learn to recognise individual animals.

Faster, cheaper insights into predator populations and behaviours could give a boost to New Zealand's ambitious Predator Free 2050 campaign, hence the research in the University's Centre of Machine Learning for Social Good.

Fiona was one of 16 Master of AI students to graduate on September 10.

Science is in her DNA. She grew up in Los Baños, a municipality known for hot springs and a cluster of universities and research centres. Her mum, Marianne, is a renowned entomologist and professor and her, dad, Arnel, is a chemical engineer turned business owner.

"My mother's academic research has been a source of inspiration," she says. "I was her lab assistant at six years old."

Fiona journeyed to New Zealand to live with her Aunt Tina and Uncle Eric and study here after a fraught period in the Philippines when her initial postgraduate plan was disrupted by Covid-19.

She loved how the Master of AI programme "immerses you in such different aspects of AI from the very philosophical to the deeply technical, and prompts you to dig further into whichever niche sparks your interest."

As a student of AI, Fiona has considered some of the big, thorny questions around AI assimilating human cognition. Could AI ever achieve consciousness? To what extent can we trust machines to make crucial decisions for humans?

Away from her research and study, Fiona is a manga and anime fan and a hobby digital artist herself, which is why she was fascinated by one of this year's big AI controversies - Ghiblification.

The trend? Using generative AI to turn any image into the hand-drawn, dreamy style of Japan's famous Studio Ghibli.

An old video resurfaced of Ghibli co-founder Hayao Miyazaki calling AI animation an "insult to life itself", while musician Nick Cave has described ChatGPT as "a boundless machine of artistic demoralisation".

"An AI tool used to thoughtlessly mass replicate art forms seems like a step backwards in terms of our evolution," says Fiona. "It takes away the creative process itself. Why automate such a defining characteristic of human nature?"

For her, AI is a powerful tool - but one that forces society to reflect on its values, priorities, and boundaries.

Fiona credits her success to the support of her family, Yun Sing Koh, Thomas Lacombe, Julia Kotlarsky, the rest of the MAI teaching team, mentors Justin and Lily, and student colleagues Bryn, Andrew, Vlad, Alex, Win Shen, Owen, and Matt.

"It's been a privilege to share such an enriching journey with them," she says.

Media contact

Paul Panckhurst | Science media adviser M: 022 032 8475 E: [email protected]

Related links