Abundant Intelligences: AI and indigenous knowledge

Artificial intelligence is on everyone’s lips these days, whether in terms of its impact (feared or desired) on our lifestyles, our professions, or more broadly, on our social relationships, the biases linked to the types of data that feed it, or the nature of the information or productions it generates. On these last two points in particular, it seems important to look at ways of integrating different forms of representation, and to give full scope to knowledge from the widest possible range of communities. With this in mind, the development of projects that enable the integration and enhancement of indigenous cultures and knowledge in the design of artificial intelligence solutions seems essential to building collective futures.

Abundant Intelligences: a transdisciplinary university project

This is the goal of the Abundant Intelligences research project, a multi-partner, trans-disciplinary university project aimed at imagining how to conceptualize artificial intelligence systems based on indigenous knowledge, which we discovered at Projet collectif’s Open Knowledge Day. The approach is rooted in “indigenous epistemologies presenting strong conceptual frameworks for understanding how technology can be created in ways that integrate existing ways of life, support the development of future generations, and optimize abundance over scarcity. [The] aim is to develop methods to improve artificial intelligence to better serve indigenous communities through collaboration with them around the exploration of culturally embedded systems,” reads the project’s presentation platform.

The vast team behind the project (nearly 50 researchers from 13 different universities, including Université de Montréal, McGill University, Concordia University, York University, the University of Oregon, the University of Hawaii, and M.I.T., among others) is joined by partners such as the Centre de recherche pour les futurs autochtones, the Future Earth international network, the IVADO and MILA research centers, and the Native Biodata consortium.

Towards practical solutions

Research activities, which began with the setting up of a working group and two major workshops in 2020, followed by the formalization of the research group and its funding from 2023, are today organized around five distinct but interrelated clusters, all bringing together “knowledge carriers These clusters cover themes as diverse as language, storytelling and oral traditions, land management and natural ecosystems, socio-cultural intelligences, and the development of cross-disciplinary solutions to the problems of indigenous peoples. These clusters cover themes as diverse as language, storytelling and oral traditions, land and natural ecosystem management, socio-cultural intelligences and the development of cross-disciplinary solutions to complex problems.

The questions raised by the Abundant Intelligences research group are aimed at finding solutions that can be applied in a wide variety of fields. Examples we heard at the conference included the importance of integrating traditional knowledge into the conceptualization of solutions for managing forest fires, and the need to preserve the linguistic diversity of indigenous communities. The research teams thus emphasize the relevance of these cross-disciplinary, inter-community and multi-partner collaborations in the development of systems that include indigenous knowledge and realities, for the benefit of societies as a whole.

These initiatives reveal immense potential for creating technologies that respect cultural differences, strengthening the dialogue between innovation and tradition. They also illustrate how science and collaboration can help build shared, richer and more sustainable futures for all.

Source photo: https://abundant-intelligences.net/about/