My ongoing investigation of scraped and stolen Māori knowledge by AI has identified more than 80 Māori authors, 8 non Māori kaupapa Māori authors (194 plus titles) and song artists; 100’s of videos from Te Karere TVNZ and Marae TV sourced primarily from YouTube, Māori academics articles published in Elsevier and JSTOR, including texts from … Read more
In 1907, the New Zealand Government passed an Act with a single purpose: to suppress tohunga and the traditional Māori knowledge and beliefs they held. It was not repealed until 1962. This was in addition to the Natives Schools Act, repression of reo Māori and culture and other systematic cultural erasure. I grew up seeing … Read more
The past few days we are hearing about AI and recruitment issues with you a young man who faced bias. I am increasingly concerned that the media is not giving Māori any consideration with their AI bias stories, relying on academics for opinions and for them to talk about us like we are not capable … Read more
A new paper I’ve written looks at Foodstuffs South Island’s facial recognition trial in Christchurch and raises serious questions about who bears the risk. The three trial stores sit in suburbs where Māori and Pacific populations are well below the city average. The stores excluded from the trial are in the suburbs with the highest … Read more
When Clinical Algorithms Don’t See Us. Māori Data Sovereignty Approaches to Detecting and Mitigating Bias in Health AI The rapid adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) and algorithmic decision support in health systems is unfolding within long standing patterns of inequity for Indigenous peoples. In Aotearoa New Zealand, Māori already experience systematic barriers to care, racism, … Read more
Using paid, proprietary AI subscription services to build reo Māori and mātauranga models introduces serious risks of cultural appropriation, loss of control, and contested ownership. Māori have always been quick to adopt and adapt new technologies. Much of our traditional knowledge is only now being recognised as innovative within contemporary scientific fields. So when ChatGPT … Read more
After generations of successful assimilation of Māori culture by governments including Native Schools, Tohunga Suppression Act, The Hunn Report, etc, many Māori were left without knowing their identity. There has been an increasing trend for those Māori individuals to reclaim back that knowledge. For many people, they are disconnected from their families and communities, so … Read more
The digital future is being written right now. AI is already here. Māori are at a crossroads. Māori Data Sovereignty is now a must. In an increasingly digitised world, Artificial Intelligence systems and algorithms shape key aspects of daily life, from healthcare to law enforcement. However, these technologies are often developed without sufficient regard for … Read more
Aukaha News story of a Māori women Ellen Tamati was woken my her mokopuna today to hear that her image of her face and moko kauae has been used in racist billboards advertising anti Māori wards. A campaign by Hobson’s Pledge. The media clip of the woman is here https://www.facebook.com/share/v/19LKSEc1f8/ Hours later, there was a public … Read more
This YouTube video clip is a perfect example of why AI will not replace our talented people in the screen industry. It was reported in RNZ and in the Spin Off. The Chat GPT AI generated video is just over 10 minutes long and is supposed to be about about keeping your phone silent in … Read more
For many years, I have written about Māori data sovereignty principles and the risks that Māori and other minority communities are confronted with from emerging digital technologies. In particular: deepfakes, cultural appropriation (such as the misuse of moko), voice cloning, and biased facial recognition systems. These technologies raise significant concerns, including identity theft, fake pornography, … Read more
Now, more than ever, it is important to learn the basics of Facial Recognition Technology (FRT) bias and the impacts on Māori communities, including the need to recognise Māori data sovereignty Principles. Recent developments include: New Zealand considering Facial Recognition Technology (FRT) for retail stores with an advisory panel of no Māori, AI drones for … Read more
We use our image of our face as a modern-day password for many things including mobile banking, unlocking our phones, X (formerly Twitter), Firefox Klar and an ever-increasing number of other online services. For law enforcement agencies and retail security, Facial Recognition Technology (FRT) systems are used to decide many factors including who becomes a suspect … Read more
The New Zealand Department of Internal Affairs (DIA), commissioned an independent Facial Recognition Trial of their Identity Check system using DIA passport face images to test against. Overall, Māori data sovereignty principles were vacant. Buried in the report was high probability of bias against Māori. DIA now say they will further test after asked by … Read more
Foodstuffs North Island (FSNI) controversially started a Facial Recognition Trial in their stores to provide more protection to their staff. There are mountains of research and cases of innocent people of colour being falsely identified by Facial Recognition Technologies, false arrests, being identified as gorillas etc. There is also a need for recognition of Māori … Read more
New Zealand and Australian musicians were surveyed about their views of Artificial Intelligence and its impacts on their music, in addition Māori and Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islanders were segmented out creating a unique Indigenous Peoples perspective of AI and their music. The report AI and Music market development of AI in the music sector … Read more
This article looks at the gender bias with Māori language translations using the non gender specific pronoun in the Māori language ‘ia’. There is a significant amount of historical and recent research with, but not limited to Large language models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT, Google Bard, or LLMs containing various biases including against females and … Read more
Only 5 weeks ago I warned Facial Recognition Technology bias in the Foodstuffs trial was technically likely and not a matter of if, but when and that Māori women would likely be discriminated against. That same week Māori Television first reported “Māori women and women of colour will be targeted’ in Foodstuffs’ facial recognition trial … Read more