AI and First Nations
The main concern surrounding Indigenous sovereignty and AI is the continued colonisation of Indigenous knowledge and the negative effects that stem from it.
For many Indigenous peoples, knowledge is sacred. Stories, maps and spirituality are passed down in a highly deliberate manner from knowledge-holder to community, as is the way it has been for generations. Colonialism has disrupted this vital process through the nonconsensual sharing of sacred knowledge, propagation of misinformation, fetishisation and heavy oversimplification for the purpose of extracting value, further perpetuated by the invention of generative AI (GAI).
The first problem comes from data scraping - the process of scanning the Internet for data and downloading it into servers for GAI to train itself from. Large models cannot function without a massive and diverse data set, which means that the vast majority of data used has not been gathered consensually or within context. As a result, an amalgamation of data from Indigenous authors, respectful non-Indigenous authors, oversimplified summaries and misinformation sources has been blended together and eventually regurgitated as a generic, colonised mass, undermining knowledge-holders and furthering harmful misconceptions, in addition to GAI’s general tendency towards white supremacist narratives. Research demonstrates that GAI has a high probability to generate incorrect and/or insensitive responses on Indigenous issues as a result.
GAI’s negative impact on the environment also uniquely affects Indigenous peoples. Data centres and the projects to resource them are often built in locations already exploited by colonialism, such as Ireland and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
There is an intersection with education as well. GAI goes against many of the core principles of Indigenous knowledge, including kinship, relationality, reciprocity and respect. As a disembodied, unexplained and unsituated entity, GAI is incapable of delivering authentic Indigenous pedagogy.
Finally, there is a serious concern for First Nations artists, heavily related to their role as knowledge-holders and knowledge-sharers. It is estimated that up to 75% of First Nation Australian art available to buy in 2022 was not made by First Nations artists; a problem is made worse by GAI, which can generate pseudo-Indigenous ‘artworks’ within minutes. This deprives First Nations artists and communities of proper compensation for their artwork and knowledge and floods the market with generic, inauthentic and misinforming products.
