This is part of an ongoing GenAI op-ed series, Arts Perspectives on AI (Artificial Intelligence), that features student and faculty voices from the UBC Faculty of Arts community.
This image was generated with the assistance of Artificial Intelligence.
Indigenous peoples have continually asked users of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to exercise caution even as it continues to wreak havoc in the domains of knowledge production. With AI’s algorithmic harvesting of data, knowledge, artistic creations, conversations, and interactions becoming increasingly uncontrollable, users must reflect on these processes. Experts encourage supporting sustainable AI-powered content generation practices that avoid perpetuating the extractivist logic characteristic of settler colonialism.
Dr. David Gaertner, Associate Professor, Institute for Critical Indigenous Studies, and Associate Member of English Language and Literatures, argues how Indigenous practices of data stewardship, that for centuries have protected data sovereignty and cultural integrity, can help counter the settler desire for ‘AI magic’ that perpetuates harm and exploitation. Questioning usually-accepted notions of passive Indigenous adaptation to technological changes, Dr. Gaertner highlights how historically significant contributions to advancement in technologies by Indigenous and Black communities showcase alternative ways toward building a sustainable future.
What are the major risks and opportunities that AI poses to Indigenous cultures, politics, customs, norms, and lifeways?
AI’s capacity for content generation, powered by vast textual corpora*, often lacks the context and nuance necessary to represent Indigenous stories, histories and politics. This can lead to misrepresentation and appropriation, contributing to the harmful ideology of settler colonialism. By relying on biased datasets and oversimplified proxies, AI can reinforce stereotypes, amplify legal and socio-economic disparities, and limit access to resources and opportunities.
AI algorithms perpetuate social inequalities and directly impact and harm vulnerable communities. The extractive nature of AI, fuelled by ingesting massive amounts of online text, mirrors and amplifies colonial extractivism. It commodifies data and knowledge without consent, recognition, or compensation, a fact highlighted by copyright lawsuits filed by publishers and authors. This digital extractivism perpetuates historical patterns of exploitation and contributes to the digital disenfranchisement of vulnerable peoples.
*textual corpora: plural form of ‘text corpus’; usually, systematically collected large and structured collections of texts or textual data (whether written or oral) that are often stored in electronic form. Also, known as Large Language Model (LLM).
What can we learn about AI from how Indigenous nations have adapted to digital technologies in the past?
While Indigenous peoples have indeed adapted to many forms of technology, assuming that adaptation is the only mode of Indigenous engagement with technology is short-sighted. As Angela Haas argues, Wampum as a foundational aspect of Indigenous digital proficiency provides a potent illustration of how Indigenous peoples have long been at the forefront of technological advancement. It is not merely a physical artifact but a sophisticated sign language technology that predates and parallels Western hypertext theory^.
By utilizing wampum belts to record histories, alliances, and political relations, Indigenous communities engaged in practices of data stewardship and hypertextuality long before these concepts were formalized in the digital age. The maintenance of these records through community memory and performance highlights a dynamic and interactive approach to information storage and retrieval outside of the established Western practices.
“As Angela Haas argues, Wampum as a foundational aspect of Indigenous digital proficiency provides a potent illustration of how Indigenous peoples have long been at the forefront of technological advancement. It is not merely a physical artifact but a sophisticated sign language technology that predates and parallels Western hypertext theory.”
The idea that technological advancement is a recent or solely Western phenomenon is disproven when we broaden our perspective to include Indigenous and Black contributions to the history of technology. Cherokee innovations in data stewardship, as one example, serve as a testament to a deep-seated lineage of Indigenous technological ingenuity, showcasing that Indigenous communities have always been future-oriented in their technological practices.
^hypertext: a word, phrase, or a chunk of text, that is non-linear in structure and contains references and links to other text or content.
Tell us about your approach to teaching students about AI practices.
Teaching technology through critiques of power and colonialism is something we can and should be doing as instructors and public figures not out of guilt or obligation, but because doing so is a matter of professional competence. For our students to succeed today, they must be prepared to grapple with power as it implicates their work with digital tools and platforms. At the bare minimum, they must learn to build systems that do not reproduce or reinforce harm and identify the potential for damage in existing systems.
As an educator, I view my role as providing students with the critical thinking skills essential for navigating the complexities of digital technologies, including AI, ensuring they grasp the broader implications of their actions within those systems’ history, politics, and economics.
What can we learn from your research on AI practices and their relation to Indigenous practices?
Much of my research examines the idea of “openness” in technology and how this principle, despite its positive intentions, can perpetuate and strengthen colonial patterns. The ownership and operation of ChatGPT by a company named “OpenAI” highlights the crucial importance of critically examining what “openness” means and its implications, underscoring the persistent necessity for a nuanced discussion around this concept—particularly given how figures like Elon Musk are surfacing the problematic implications of that name.
Standing Rock Sioux scholar and theologian Vine Deloria Jr’s conceptualization of sovereignty—emphasizing cultural integrity, self-determination, and non-interference—is a foundational framework for envisioning a more ethical approach to AI. It respects Indigenous principles and rights that honour data sovereignty, ensure cultural integrity, and facilitate meaningful participation by the communities they represent.
“Standing Rock Sioux scholar and theologian Vine Deloria Jr's conceptualization of sovereignty—emphasizing cultural integrity, self-determination, and non-interference—is a foundational framework for envisioning a more ethical approach to AI.”
Deloria’s idea of “wise and substantial” approaches to information science underscores the importance of Indigenous control over knowledge production and dissemination. Such control protects a community’s autonomy to govern their data in alignment with their own protocols without external intrusion. Deloria’s foresight in recognizing the potential of technology to serve Indigenous communities by repatriating knowledge and fostering new, vibrant connections between data, stories, place, and people is profoundly relevant today.
What do you believe are the biggest AI-related opportunities and/or challenges facing Indigenous faculty and students?
Indigenous faculty and students are better suited to answer this question than me. I’d prefer to respond from my position as a humanist and teacher. AI technologies, trained on large language models, mirror the disenfranchisement and violence imposed through settler colonialism while redistributing it at scale. Algorithms institutionalize a power dynamic where dominant linguistic and cultural narratives are further entrenched and amplified in the social infrastructure while personal expression is rendered increasingly obsolete and niche. The emergence of reports detailing how the internet is currently cannibalizing itself and generating new AI content from existing AI material, also known as the “dead internet theory”, further amplifies these concerns.
“While the public remains enchanted by the seemingly magical outputs of AI technologies, the less visible aspects of their operation—their data consumption patterns, the proprietary nature of their algorithms, and the underlying drive for efficiency—warrant deeper scrutiny and resistance.”
Writing, in all its forms, is not merely a tool for communication but a living expression of culture, deeply intertwined with the physical and relational landscapes from which it arises. The indiscriminate harvesting of text to train AI models risks commodifying these expressions, stripping them of their context and connection to place and community. While the public remains enchanted by the seemingly magical outputs of AI technologies, the less visible aspects of their operation—their data consumption patterns, the proprietary nature of their algorithms, and the underlying drive for efficiency—warrant deeper scrutiny and resistance.
Dr. David Gaertner, Assoc. Professor, Institute for Critical Indigenous Studies
Vine Deloria writes “In a world in which communications are nearly instantaneous and simultaneous experiences are possible, it must be spaces and places that distinguish us from one another, not time, nor history.” Taking Deloria’s words seriously, I acknowledge that while my research is in the notional territory of cyberspace, when I “touch grass” it is in the ancestral, traditional and unceded territories of the hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓ speaking Musqueam people. I am exceptionally grateful for the relationships, both with people and the land, I have developed in my time here.
About the featured image
The featured image was generated with the assistance of Adobe Firefly which is a generative machine learning AI model.
We provided the prompt: “Tree roots underground, a tall cedar tree stands in the middle of a forest at night, surrounded by machines cutting off its branches.”
