Risks and Opportunities in the Digital Future

By: Dinh Thai Bao Tran 

Artificial intelligence (AI) is changing the way people live, work, and connect with each other. From translation apps to environmental monitoring, AI has become a big part of global development.
However, for Indigenous communities, this new technology brings both dangers and possibilities. AI can help preserve languages and support community empowerment, but it can also repeat old injustices, take away cultural knowledge, and threaten sovereignty.

Understanding both sides of AI is important if we want a digital future that is fair and respectful of Indigenous knowledge.

AI systems are trained with large amounts of data that mostly reflect Western values and worldviews. Because of that, many AI programs have built-in bias that can misrepresent or harm Indigenous people.
For example, facial recognition tools often make more mistakes identifying people of color and Indigenous people than white users (Buolamwini & Gebru, 2018).

These mistakes are not just “technical errors”  they show how power is uneven in data collection and design.

AI can also lead to cultural appropriation and data misuse. Many Indigenous songs, images, and languages are taken from the internet to train AI tools, often without permission or credit.

This is a kind of digital colonialism; where what is being taken is not land but knowledge and culture.

As the Indigenous AI Working Group (2020) warns, when AI systems are trained on Indigenous data without community control, it continues “a form of knowledge violence.”

Another serious concern is surveillance. In the name of “security” or “environmental protection,” governments and corporations have used AI to watch Indigenous activists. During pipeline protests in North America, police used drones and data analytics to track Indigenous demonstrators 
These actions damage trust and repeat colonial control only now through technology.

Even with these risks, many Indigenous communities are using AI in creative and positive ways to protect their cultures and rights.
A clear example is language revitalization. All around the world, AI programs are helping record, translate, and teach endangered Indigenous languages.

AI can also help monitor and protect the environment, which is deeply connected to Indigenous sovereignty. In the Amazon, the Waorani community has used AI-based mapping tools to find illegal logging, combining traditional knowledge with modern science.
These projects show that technology does not have to be against Indigenous culture it can strengthen their role in protecting the Earth.

AI can also help reduce the digital divide, bringing education, healthcare, and information that fit each community’s culture. For example, AI translation tools can help Indigenous students learn in their own languages, and medical AI systems can adapt to their specific health needs. When technology is guided by ethics and cooperation, AI can become a tool of empowerment, not oppression.

At the heart of this issue is the idea of Indigenous Data Sovereignty the right of Indigenous Peoples to control how their data is collected, owned, and used.

Respecting this right means:

• Involving communities in every step of AI development.
• Recognizing that not all knowledge should be digitized or shared.

As Indigenous technologist Dr. Jason Edward Lewis said,
“Some knowledge is sacred — not everything that can be coded should be coded.” (Lewis, 2020). True innovation only happens when humans build technology with humility, gratitude, and respect for its limits.
AI itself is neither good nor bad — it reflects the values and goals of the people who create it.

For Indigenous communities, the challenge is not only to resist AI but to re-imagine it in fairer, more inclusive ways. By claiming control over their data, setting cultural protocols, and designing systems that reflect Indigenous worldviews, communities can make AI a tool for justice rather than exploitation. The future of AI and Indigenous rights depends on relationships between people, between knowledge systems, and between technology and the Earth.

​AI can be used to exploit, but it can also be used to protect and connect.
If guided by respect, collaboration, and environmental awareness, AI can heal instead of harm.
The question is not how AI will shape Indigenous futures, but how Indigenous values can shape the future of AI.

SOURCES:

• Buolamwini, J., & Gebru, T. (2018). Gender shades: Intersectional accuracy disparities in commercial gender classification. Proceedings of Machine Learning Research, 81, 1–15 https://proceedings.mlr.press/v81/buolamwini18a.htmlLinks to an external site.
• Indigenous AI Working Group. (2020). Position Paper on Indigenous Protocol and Artificial Intelligence. Montreal: Concordia University.https://www.indigenous-ai.net/position-paper/Links to an external site.
• Lewis, J. E. (2020). Indigenous Protocol and Artificial Intelligence: Position Paper. Concordia University. https://www.indigenous-ai.net/position-paper/Links to an external site.

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