Ubuntu, Kaupapa Māori, and Vanua Frameworks: Beyond mainstream to indigneous fit AI
Abstract
The idea that technoscience innovations are neutral is one of the 21st C heresies we have been exposed to, cultures and ideologies are embedded in these innovations. Indigenous frameworks are considered not fit hence have either been omitted or treated as an afterthought in the design, development, and deployment of AI technoscience innovation. This in turn has excluded a big majority of the non-western world who in some cases used as data fields by tech companied and researchers. Bearing its roots in the colonial era this exclusion has magnified the level of bias, distortions, and bacterised indigenous cultures in AI systems further creating a digital divide and societal gaps leading to a subtle cultural genocide. In this presentation I will share my research where I am developing methodologies and frameworks for ethical and indigenous fit AI guided by local values and philosophies which promote indigenous knowledge systems preservation. To achieve this, I use mixed methods developed and designed with guidance of communities in the Māori, Fijian and Zimbabwean local communities.