AI presents opportunities and challenges to Indigenous collaborators trying to retain languages – The Globe and Mail

The Lauwelnew Tribal School and what is now known as FirstVoices joined forces more than 20 years ago to bring ethical Indigenous language tools online.

Almost all First Nations languages in B.C. are currently endangered. Dr. Patrick Littell, associate research officer at the federal government’s Digital Technologies Research Centre, whose work revolves around Indigenous language technologies, says there is a lack of learning materials for most of these languages. “Even if there are some text materials for reading and writing practice, some languages often don’t have audio materials for listening and speaking practice.”

The FirstVoices platform was co-created by John Elliott and linguist Peter Brand, alongside other advocates who sought to document and retain ancient Indigenous languages using technology. As that technology advances, Indigenous collaborators and researchers such as Dr. Littell find themselves taking a cautious approach to tools in fields such as generative AI and large language models (LLM) for preservation and revitalization.

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