The Indigenous AI Revolution

How ancient wisdom is teaching machines to preserve languages, reduce bias, and reimagine technology’s future.

Image Courtesy of: https://abundant-intelligences.net

Deep in Canada’s boreal forests of Alberta, so very far away from Silicon Valley where the sounds of nature fill the air, soon a data centre will add it’s quiet hum to the sounds. A move that would have those in Silicon Valley likely do a bit of a double take. From a converted power plant in the far north of New Zealand a Native Hawaiian and a Māori radio broadcaster developed a speech recognition system with 92% accuracy for the Indigenous language of te reo.

Indigenous peoples around the world are at the forefront of developing innovative uses and applications of GenAI tools like ChatGPT or Claude, but most often, starting from scratch when they do. Rather than them asking “how do we adapt to AI?” they are instead asking “How do we make AI adapt to our values?”

This work is quite profound and the various projects underway in Canada, Australia, New Zealand and other countries can start to play a vital role in shaping culturally rich and relevant AI to better serve humanity. These creates an interconnectedness that contrasts with the often reductionist approaches of Western AI development.