{"id":176302,"date":"2023-04-25T08:15:26","date_gmt":"2023-04-25T18:15:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=176302"},"modified":"2023-04-26T10:10:32","modified_gmt":"2023-04-26T20:10:32","slug":"improve-ai-through-indigenous-knowledge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2023\/04\/25\/improve-ai-through-indigenous-knowledge\/","title":{"rendered":"<abbr>UH<\/abbr> part of $17<abbr>M<\/abbr> grant to improve <abbr>AI<\/abbr> through Indigenous knowledge"},"content":{"rendered":"<span class=\"span-reading-time rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\">Reading time: <\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\"> 3<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minutes<\/span><\/span><div class=\"responsive-video-wrap-post\"><figure class=\"wp-block-embed wp-block-embed-youtube is-type-video is-provider-youtube epyt-figure\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"><div class=\"epyt-video-wrapper\"><iframe  id=\"_ytid_84135\"  width=\"620\" height=\"349\"  data-origwidth=\"620\" data-origheight=\"349\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/0S3US52knuQ?enablejsapi=1&origin=https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu&rel=0&autoplay=0&cc_load_policy=0&cc_lang_pref=&iv_load_policy=1&loop=0&fs=1&playsinline=0&autohide=2&theme=dark&color=red&controls=1&disablekb=0&\" class=\"__youtube_prefs__  no-lazyload\" title=\"Â鶹´«Ã½part of $17M grant to improve AI through Indigenous knowledge\"  allow=\"fullscreen; accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen data-no-lazy=\"1\" data-skipgform_ajax_framebjll=\"\"><\/iframe><\/div><\/div><\/figure><\/div>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/\">University of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span><\/a> is part of an international group of researchers and Indigenous practitioners that has been awarded a $23-million (Canadian and approximately $17-million U.S.) grant from Canada\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sshrc-crsh.gc.ca\/funding-financement\/nfrf-fnfr\/index-eng.aspx\">New Frontiers in Research Fund<\/a> to work on improving artificial intelligence (<abbr>AI<\/abbr>) through Indigenous knowledge.<\/p>\n<p>The project, &ldquo;Abundant Intelligences: Expanding Artificial Intelligence through Indigenous Knowledge Systems,&rdquo; is Indigenous-led and involves 37 co-investigators and collaborators from eight universities and 12 Indigenous community-based organizations from Canada, the United States and New Zealand.<\/p>\n<p>The teams will coalesce in locally rooted &ldquo;pods&rdquo; to collaborate with Indigenous communities. In this way, each team will learn from, and alongside, Indigenous knowledge keepers to bring novel perspectives to transforming <abbr>AI<\/abbr>.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;The <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Pod will be a key site and significant resource for Abundant Intelligences. <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> has one of the greatest concentrations of Indigenous technological talent in the world,&rdquo; said Concordia University Professor Jason Lewis, who is the principal investigator for the grant. &ldquo;It has already played a key role in the Indigenous <abbr>AI<\/abbr> discussion by hosting the Indigenous Protocol and <abbr>AI<\/abbr> Workshops in 2019. These were grounded in part in the extensive and vibrant discussion within the Kanaka Maoli (Native Hawaiian) community regarding the long history of kanaka innovation, and how that community has always developed and taken advantage of new technological tools and methods.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<h2>Weaving a lei<\/h2>\n<p>The <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> pod will be based at <a href=\"https:\/\/westoahu.hawaii.edu\/\"><abbr title=\"University of Hawaii\">UH<\/abbr> West <span aria-label=\"Oahu\">O&#699;ahu<\/span><\/a>\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lavaflow.info\/createx\">Create(x) digital emerging media lab<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;You see in Create(x) there are a lot of flowers on the table to weave a lei from,&rdquo; said <abbr>UH<\/abbr> Director of Indigenous Innovation <strong>Kamuela Enos<\/strong>, who was a co-applicant for the grant. &ldquo;What\u2019s really important is that we will do it all in mindfulness of what is our responsibility as Hawaiians to protect our [intellectual property] and its use, which is always front of mind for us.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Other <abbr>UH<\/abbr> co-applicants included:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Jason Leigh<\/strong>, <abbr>UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa professor of information and computer sciences<\/li>\n<li><strong>Bryan Kuwada<\/strong>, <abbr>UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa assistant professor of Hawaiian studies<\/li>\n<li><strong>Susan Crow<\/strong>, <abbr>UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa associate professor of natural resources and environmental management<\/li>\n<li><strong>Manulani Meyer<\/strong>, <abbr>UH<\/abbr> West <span aria-label=\"Oahu\">O&#699;ahu<\/span> konohiki (facilitator) of K\u016blana o Kapole\u200bi<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Leigh, founding director of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lavaflow.info\/createx\">Create(x)<\/a> and co-director of the <a href=\"https:\/\/datascience.hawaii.edu\/\"><span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Data Science Institute<\/a> said, &ldquo;<abbr>AI<\/abbr> will impact every part of our lives in this decade and beyond. This project is an unprecedented opportunity to influence the future of <abbr>AI<\/abbr> to make it more inclusive in its use, development and evolution.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<h2>Create(x)<\/h2>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/system-indigenous-ai-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"Person standing next to a glowing blue digital projection\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-176308\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/system-indigenous-ai-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/system-indigenous-ai-130x73.jpg 130w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/system-indigenous-ai.jpg 676w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The Create(x) lab is located in the new Academy for Creative Media (<abbr>ACM<\/abbr>) building and features projection onto three walls and the floor for various virtual environments. The lab provides students access to immersive technologies where diverse projects&#8212;designed to perpetuate Indigenous knowledge and narratives\u2014range from visualizing the first few lines of the <em>Kumulipo<\/em> (Hawaiian creation chant), teaching Hawaiian vocabulary of native species and environmental change, modern Hawaiian wayfinding and the retelling of famous <span aria-label=\"moolelo\">mo&#699;olelo<\/span> (stories).<\/p>\n<p>Create(x) co-director and <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Pod Coordinator Kari Noe said she is excited about the opportunity to discuss how the grant may translate to current and future projects and overall protocol and data management.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;[The grant] is giving us the capability, resources and time to think through and talk through a new way of interacting with technology that <abbr>AI<\/abbr> is providing us,&rdquo; Noe said.<\/p>\n<p>The $37-million state-of-the-art <abbr>ACM<\/abbr> facility opened in 2021 as part of the <abbr>UH<\/abbr> <abbr>ACM<\/abbr> System, which supports 16 programs at all 10 campuses statewide.<\/p>\n<p><abbr>ACM<\/abbr> System Founder and Director <strong>Chris Lee<\/strong> added, &ldquo;This extraordinary grant is exactly the kind of opportunity envisioned when including the specific space for Create(x) in the design for the <abbr>ACM<\/abbr> Student Production Facility at <abbr>UH<\/abbr> West <span aria-label=\"Oahu\">O&#699;ahu<\/span>. Congratulations to everyone at both campuses on the success of this first collaboration between <abbr>ACM<\/abbr> supported programs at <abbr>UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa and <abbr>UH<\/abbr> West <span aria-label=\"Oahu\">O&#699;ahu<\/span>.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<h2>Genealogy of a grant<\/h2>\n<p>The Abundant Intelligences grant is for six years and includes funding to involve other community-based experts and for community engagement events. <abbr>UH<\/abbr>\u2019s share is approximately $850,000 Canadian or $637,500 U.S.<\/p>\n<p>Enos pointed out that the grant also has a &ldquo;genealogy.&rdquo; In 2019, Lewis co-organized with Leigh and others the series of workshops in <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> on Indigenous <abbr>AI<\/abbr>, which resulted in a position paper, &ldquo;<a href=\"https:\/\/spectrum.library.concordia.ca\/id\/eprint\/986506\/7\/Indigenous_Protocol_and_AI_2020.pdf\">Indigenous Protocol and Artificial Intelligence<\/a>&rdquo; (<span class=\"small-text\"><abbr title=\"Portable Document Format\">PDF<\/abbr><\/span>) that was published in 2020.<\/p>\n<p><em>&#8212;By Kelli Abe Trifonovitch<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>International researchers get millions for an Indigenous approach to <abbr>AI<\/abbr>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30,12],"tags":[112,1176,33,9,947,59,56],"class_list":["post-176302","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research","category-video","tag-academy-for-creative-media","tag-data-science","tag-hawaiian","tag-uh-manoa","tag-uh-system","tag-uh-west-oahu","tag-video-2","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176302","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176302"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176302\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":176515,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176302\/revisions\/176515"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}