I wanted this post to be light, short, about AI and AGI and what an Indigenous lens can mean. But it's not, thanks to recent headlines in our newspapers, and events around the world. Though AI is very topical, everywhere, with new AI agencies starting everywhere, here in Aotearoa at least, and I would say the world, We Are NOT READY.
When I finished my Masters of Technological Futures in June 2020, 'We are Not Ready' was my big finding. Learning about the wow of technologies like block chain and Artificial Intelligence, the promise, decentralisation, autonomy, efficiency, and then the concerns such as biassed and incomplete data, the harm already occurring. I thought this sounds familiar. It was, it was the analogue bias, harm, exclusion that already existed for Māori through the establishment of the British legal system. It was an algorithm that represented and reflected the values and worldview of a certain demographic people. If you weren't those people you would never be represented, recognised or helped by it.
Historically the law was made by those elected, who were literate, male landowners.
Very simply put, that is the same as AI. It reflects the creators, the data it has been trained on, and every decision maker right through its lifecycle. My Master's gives references to the harms being generated by technology, at the time, against people of colour, women, children, Māori and other Indigenous people, and the make up of those in the tech creation industry, was at the time, predominantly white, affluent males. Sound familiar? History repeating?
As the Master's was to be impactful and solution finding, I thought I know, how can we learn from the past, to harness the power of Māori values + AI, for 'good', people and planet. My theory was include Māori, from its creation to deployment and beyond, and we will create representative technology for Māori. More broadly it is those that create at the decision making table, manage and govern, that will be represented.
What could we then create with or even change in AI to help others, to aid our environment. It's a new lens on one's own business, organisation, ideas, products, services that can give that invaluable 360 degree view, missing from our blind spots. And it could help mitigate historic, present and future bias and harm.
The next question is HOW? For the purpose of the Masters I thought we need a practical Māori Framework for AI creators and users, infact any business, organisation or institution. We have many great Te Ao Māori frameworks, our tikanga broadly speaking never changes, just the contexts for their application.
I developed a tikanga framework and excitedly off I set. Covid hit, so instead of whole businesses or management teams, I ended up speaking with zoom calls with CEO's, small leadership teams, individual civil servants and Ministers, academics, individual employees, students, and in my testing found WE ARE NOT READY!!
The sad news was a Māori framework(let alone mature understanding and use of the powerful tech at hand) was just too many steps ahead. Before we could get to technology I hit upon a barrier, a big one. Just wanting to test this framework of Māori world views and values and a framework with these businesses or institutions raised emotions, ranging from Pākehā, 'Please don't be harsh, I should know more and I don't' or 'why do we have to, it was all so long ago!', to our newer communities saying, 'where do we fit in a bi-cultural nation?, to Māori saying 'why share that precious knowledge with 'them', don't trust 'them.'
Whoa. I was shocked. I thought we were all so much more ahead, more aware of our history, of understanding our positions under He Whakaputanga and Te Tiriti o Waitangi, than even from when I studied law 25 years ago! Back then it was ForeShore and Seabed issues, currently in the news again!. It was about Māori representation in the media, name suppressions for Pākehā male but no-one else etc, etc, but NO we are still not ready!
So one of my Master's recommendations 5 years ago was that Aotearoa, New Zealand needed more national korero, discussions, in our own whānau, communities, and then altogether. If South Africa could ahve their Truth and Reconciliation hui, Germany talk about their Holocaust and Nazi history, why couldn't we?
So, I developed my Te Tiriti o Waitangi sessions, Tikanga introduction sessions, for Māori, but also included a great deal about YOU, non-Māori business or organisation or individual, where you come from, why your people or you chose Aotearoa as a home etc, what your people's values, vision was, so we could all not only understand our place in Aotearoa, but how different lenses have so much to offer when heard, understood and shared.
I was privileged to test my theories and framework with corporations, organisations, Master's students at the now called, Academy X. So many people, individuals, businesses, organisations, who were a bit nervous at the outset, relayed such powerful and moving feedback. Once they felt heard and they understood more about actual historic and present facts about our Māori history, post Cook's encounter to today, learned how practical and beneficial our, Māori, values and practises are, they wanted to learn more and start adopting and adapting straight away!
And I have gotten to test them on the world stage with really positive effects. Interestingly, international organisations and businesses, such as the World Economic Forum, the I.E.E.E., universities, even Google, Microsoft, really took to this quickly, they understood the real need for usually unheard thought leaders and tech builders to be participating in this conversation of AI ethics, potential power, benefit, and concern.
Decades ago my uncle, Tā Himi Henare, Sir James Henare spoke about kotahitanga ki ngā kanorau, unity in our diversity, not uniformity or conformity, together in our individual strengths and weaknesses, we can achieve much.
So it is more saddening that today in 2024, here in Aotearoa, that conversation of why Māori and Te Tiriti o Waitangi is narrowing further. The cry that Māori divide and the call by some Pākehā for One Law for All, essentially modern assimilation is surprisingly unsurprising. And of course is the unfolding hate internationally. I worry that my uncle's call seems further out of reach than when my Master's came out 5 years ago, finding that We Are NOT READY!
This and we still have one of the most powerful technologies at hand, AI, AGI. When will we be ready? If you are ready to get ready, together, under the maru, the shelter of kotahitanga ki ngā kanorau, message me, email, Linked In message. I AM READY.
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