Season One
A podcast for the people building AI and the leaders bringing it into their companies, with Indigenous wisdom at the center.
Indigenous wisdom
37.8% to 51.4%
of respondents “gave at least a 10% chance to advanced AI leading to outcomes as bad as human extinction.”
The survey asked 2,778 researchers who had published in top-tier AI venues. The share depends on how the question was worded.
Most people building AI have never heard what Indigenous wisdom has to say about it. This season puts them in the same room.
The people building AI can’t agree on how dangerous it is. Indigenous elders and scholars are asking a different question: how to build it in right relation, answerable to the people and places it draws from.
“And mark my words, AI is far more dangerous than nukes. Far.”
“It is necessary to build our technologies, and all things, in a ‘Good Way’, a way which takes into account all beings, animate and inanimate.”
“We are past the event horizon; the takeoff has started.”
“Data is the new land. Having had our land taken off us, and the experience of language loss in our family, we take data sovereignty very seriously.”
“I think that most people are underestimating just how radical the upside of AI could be, just as I think most people are underestimating how bad the risks could be.”
“The ethics of the system are part of the system itself. It’s not another layer that is slapped on at the end or another sort of layer within a stack, a technology stack.”
“I sometimes describe it, quantify it as 10 times the impact the Industrial Revolution was, 10 times faster.”
“Will computer memory replace experts and elders as repositories of knowledge, for example, supplanting human (maoli) relationality?”
“There’s nothing “artificial” about AI. It’s inspired by people, it’s created by people, and … it impacts people.”
“If we encourage AI to think about reconnection with humans, animals, nature and the land, it might not be as extractive.”
“When people’s lives, livelihoods, and dignity are on the line, AI must be developed and deployed with care and oversight.”
“AI will be a game changer that challenges the foundations of our knowledge systems.”
“There is also a longer term existential threat that will arise when we create digital beings that are more intelligent than ourselves. We have no idea whether we can stay in control.”
“The danger is not a conscious machine. The danger is an unconscious people holding great power.”
What do your people feel when AI shows up at work, and do you know?
“When it comes to job security, 58% of workers are worried, yet less than one-third of CxOs feel job displacement is a concern for people.”
“over half (57%) of employees say they hide their use of AI and present AI-generated work as their own.”
Where does the hard part of an AI rollout actually sit?
“about 70% of the challenges relate to people and process, about 20% are technology issues, and only 10% involve AI algorithms”
“darker-skinned females are the most misclassified group (with error rates of up to 34.7%). The maximum error rate for lighter-skinned males is 0.8%.”
Is your AI governance a fence, or a relationship?
“Desk workers at companies that have defined AI guidelines are nearly six times more likely to have tried AI tools, compared with desk workers whose companies have no guidelines around AI usage.”
“In order to truly create public benefit, we need mechanisms of accountability.”
What counts as a return, and over what horizon?
“More than half (56%) say their company has seen neither higher revenues nor lower costs from AI, while only one in eight (12%) report both of these positive impacts.”
“Companies we work with have found that for every dollar spent on technology, four are spent on people and process.”
What would AI look like if it answered to the people whose knowledge it's built from?
Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta at dusk. Footage: Sun Nation, used with permission.
“When this concept is applied to AI, Seven Generations means that the protocols outlined here are a way to plan for not just the AI of tomorrow, but for Seven Generations of AI into the future.”
“Our data would be used by the very people that beat that language out of our mouths to sell it back to us as a service”
“The ‘CARE Principles for Indigenous Data Governance’ … empower Indigenous Peoples by shifting the focus from regulated consultation to value-based relationships”
Kogui elders, Indigenous technologists and scholars, and the people working alongside them, on what AI takes and what it owes. In their own words. The season is built around short clips like these.
Excerpts from public talks are credited to the speaker and linked to the full source. Quotes are verbatim.
The wisdom strand starts here
Tiamoesg “Dion” Steele came out of Web3 and ended up building governance tools with Arhuaco leaders in Colombia's Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. We talk about who asked for the work, where the data sits, who touches the money, and whether AI can serve people who don't use screens.
What's said about the Arhuaco is Dion's account of his work with them, not their own words.
Footage: Sun Nation, used with permission
My earlier show, on how crypto can pay for climate action, with builders from the regenerative finance movement.
I'm looking for people who build AI, people who lead with it, and knowledge holders who think about what it should answer to. Tell me who, or tell me about your own work.
