This is the second media commendatory on Māori perspectives that relate to AI stories in the media and developments. Again, there are so many stories to consider. Week ending April 10, 2024.

LinkedIn post – AI and IA pronouns

Waipapa Taumata Rau The University of Auckland and AI expert Professor Michael Witbrock on LinkedIn authored a post that started

I think there’s an argument for a new class of pronouns for AI systems. Or for non-human non-animals.

There was some commentary about the use of pronouns in general. I added a comment that attracted a significant amount of views and interactions, where I said

The Māori language (Indigenous New Zealand) uses ‘ia’ for any of the pronouns for both human and non-human.
This is a good conversation, especially as myself and others are questioning Indigenous knowledge and the realm of AI that utilises such knowledge.

My response requires a much more detail to explain the Māori philosophies and lore behind the concept and much more about epistemologies of humans, living species and non physical elements in the Māori world, but I will do that as a separate writing at a later date.

A response by Professor Witbrock concluded with the following part comment:

… it’s nice on the surface that IA and AI reflect each other).

This creates the opportunity for a much larger and in depth philosophical question of AI and pronouns, but also the real possibility that the Māori pronoun ‘ia’ could be used as an international loan word as a pronoun for AI.

Reflecting Professor Witbrock’s comment, this also reflects a Māori philosophy or tikanga that everything has (what what many non Māori would identify as Yin and yang) what Māori refer to as a Mauri. The reflection of IA and AI is culturally significant and from a g33k perspective is cool.

It is also an important discussion that I often speak about, the possibility that in New Zealand an AI with Māori Data could be granted legal personhood.

 

GCSB centre considers US finding that Microsoft ‘cascade’ of errors allowed Chinese hack RadioNZ

Microsoft, which holds the data of millions of New Zealanders given to it by the government, has been castigated in the United States for slack cybersecurity which it says let in Chinese hackers.

This comes on top of alarm at an ongoing successful hack of Microsoft corporate email by the Russia-backed Midnight Blizzard group linked to successful attacks which targeted the US presidential elections in 2016.

New Zealand was the first country to put its citizens’ authentication records offshore, into Microsoft’s Azure cloud computing servers in Australia in 2021.

In the Waitangi Tribunal’s updated 2023 WAI 2522 Report on the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) report, the tribunal defines Māori Data Sovereignty as “Māori Data Governance. The principles, structures, accountability mechanisms, legal instruments, and policies through which Māori exercise control over Māori data”. If the New Zealand government considered this, New Zealand data would not be overseas and in this breach.

The situation at present is that large volumes of New Zealand data are stored overseas and not only vulnerable to hacking, but jurisdictional oversight that does not consider Te Tiriti o Waitangi not New Zealand privacy laws.

Presently health data, Police, potentially Courts data and many other swathes of personal data that the New Zealand government has collected, is being stored overseas like this.

The solution would be to implement New Zealand Sovereignty of data, then recognise and implement Māori Data Sovereignty by building and implementing servers in New Zealand with New Zealand owned companies. This would have multiple positive impacts to the New Zealand economy while also recognising Te Tiriti.

 

Tongan artist criticises artificial intelligence while using it to showcase ‘creepiness’ in her art Te Ao Māori News

Tongan artist Tui Emma Gillies speaks of the cultural issues of AI creating Tongan art:

“Visually, everything seemed to tend further and further towards the reptilian and I found that if this creator without a soul bore any resemblance to biological life, it was to the reptilian world.”

“My heritage art form is in my DNA, it’s been practised for centuries, I don’t see AI getting that intelligent and I liked the natural fibre of my work.

This is the reality for all Indigenous art. For Māori, we are an ever increasing online of Māori prompt engineers training AI to think more like a human Māori artist and use traditional knowledge.

This article highlights the Intelectual Property Rights issues and the cultural appropriation of AI with art and the need for more awareness and conversations.

 

Should we be worried about AI stealing, replacing our faces? Stuff

I made commentary on this story in my previous post, before the Stuff article. But this has raised some significant concerns about Māori artists who are using AI to add faces of the living and the dead, including moko to their artwork and creating a volumes of culturally unsafe art. It is so widespread, that it too deserves its own research and exposure.

It also reflects warnings for New Zealand politicians, especially centre and left politicians who are usually victims of online hate crimes. Many international media including Politico in January this year were reporting China bombards Taiwan with fake news ahead of election.

We also read The Guardian article ‘Disinformation on steroids’: is the US prepared for AI’s influence on the election? reporting that AI has already been deployed to make a false video of the president to spread misinformation. Then this week after we hear of state funded AI generated false media targeting the American elections his year, the New Zealand Herald reported NZ MPs and Parliament systems targeted by China-based hackers.

We need to be ready for such attacks in New Zealand, but more so Māori communities need to be aware of this in both elections and in their personal interactions online. Considering Māori are more likely to be targeted for online scams than non Māori, and considering our cultural communications, we will need to question in a unique Māori way if the Māori person online (video, image or audio) is really the person we think they are.

 

Office of the Privacy Commissioner (OPC) announces development of draft rules for the use of biometric technologies and is now asking what people think of those.

Media Release – Rules for Consultation 

I have written at length on the issues for all New Zealanders and in particular for Māori, Pasifika and People of Colour about Biometric Technologies and the recent FoodStuffs supermarket trials in New Zealand.

As this impacts everyone and it is a public consultation, so everyone should participate and have their say. For Māori, the OPC consultation process has usually only been with those Māori with a voice, those who are outspoken and who are usually paid by their employers to speak out, such as Māori academics and Māori lobbyists.

Typically cultural issues such as moko, tikanga, crime statistics are not considered, so the more community input the more Māori and other communities with out a voice can have a voice.

 

Indigenous

In Cultural Survival Journal, Issue 48-1 Indigenizing Emerging Technologies. March 19, 2024 are 7 articles of Indigenous Peoples using AI and Emerging Technologies in conjunction with their traditional knowledge. Some of the stories make commentary about below.

Protecting the Salmon Population with Artificial Intelligence

The Heiltsuk Nation in Bella Bella, British Columbia, Canada in the article speak of using AI to protect their sacred Salmon. This story provides many potentials for Māori communities to consider partnering with the Heiltsuk nation with similar projects to protect out taonga species. At several of my marae for example are Tuna (eels), Titi (Mutton Bird) migrations and many questions about where the fish and shellfish are from out oceans. Adapting AI and using our traditional knowledge could prove to be advantageous in so many ways.

 

The Antecedent Future: Using Emerging Technologies to Carry Forth Wisdom of the Ancestors

Professor Amelia Winger-Bearskin of the Seneca-Cayuga Nation of Oklahoma discusses AI with art and film. This article is directly applicable to Māori and should be considered by Māori artists, archivists, GLAM sector and Māori film producers.

There are risks and opportunities that communities need to be aware of. This article also highlights the need for Māori to finalise the WAI 262 recommendations and continue to raise awareness of Māori Data Sovereignty.

Artificial Intelligence and Indigenous Peoples’ Realities

This article is a wide spread discussion of the risks of further colonisation to Indigenous Peoples and covers many of the New Zealand risks of AI I speak about in relation to Māori, but at an international perspective.

This article highlights the need to better global partnerships of all Indigenous Peoples, minorities and countries to collaborate with each other and ensure new AI technologies are ethical and respect human rights.

It is a good reminder that if we do not collaborate, AI could be a colonisation tool on steroids.

 

Indigenizing Spaces through Virtual Reality in South Africa

This article challenges the status quo of trust with AI and emerging technologies and the need for Data Sovereignty in place for leading the development and utilising technologies for the sake of our future generations who will not have to be dictated to by colonial structures with our artifacts, such as museums and libraries.