How can te ao Māori be uplifted as we enter the Intelligent Age?
- Salient Mag
- May 26
- 6 min read
By Noam Mānuka Lazarus
It is no doubt that technologies like artificial intelligence and quantum computing are developing faster than the average Kiwi can comprehend.
As we enter what the World Economic Forum describes as the “Intelligent Age,” our lives and economy have already started to transform.
Victoria University Computer Science lecturer Dr Kevin Shedlock (Ngapuhi, Ngati Porou, Whakatohea) says this new age brings concerns for Māori and indigenous peoples around the world, posing the question of who is “credentialising” and “authenticising” online Māori knowledge.
Shedlock believes people can learn anything they like, but the meaning and authenticity changes when it has not been “underwritten by someone in the community to credentialise that as tika, pono, or truthful.”
“This is one of the challenges of the system is to show how authentically they can credentialise knowledge.”
“AI doesn’t have an understanding of how these ideas [i.e.] of respect look with us, the idea that respect can be based on ceremonial processes, like pōwhiri, for example.” Says Shedlock.
“We all know that when we show up at the waharoa, we don’t go bowling on in there. We understand the ritual and the ceremony. The sense of respect.”
Jannat Maqbool, Executive Director of The NZ Artificial Intelligence Researchers Association, says “engaging with global AI is vital to our ongoing economic, social, and cultural wellbeing”
“AI is advancing so rapidly that nearly all industries, from primary production to the creative economy, will harness AI solutions in some form”, says Maqbool.
With the Māori creative and arts sector contributing $1.6 billion to the economy of Aotearoa in 2024, with 3,433 businesses, elements of te ao Māori are being constantly revisited and reimagined, to fit into the digital world.
Ngataiharuru Taepa (Te Atiawa, Te Roro o Te Rangi), a contributing artist to the awardwinning Te Rau Karamu marae on Massey University campus, says “when carvers started using steel chisels, that had implications on the tōhunga who were still using stone chisels.”
He says that their decision to cut parts of the marae whakairo with CNC routering, a computer-controlled carving process, was made through careful consideration and it was decided to be appropriate to engage and use new technologies such as this.
This same approach of prioritizing understanding, adaption and preservation is now being applied to artificial intelligence and other growing powerful technologies.
Last year, Te Hiku Media shared their AI tool, which hopes to take the reins of Māori language models from foreign-owned apps like ChatGPT, who have been known to misconstrued meanings when translating things, i.e. karakia, into te reo Māori.
The speech assistant values data sovereignty by only using data from people who have given consent, as opposed to some other AI tools that collect their data from things posted on the internet.
Some of the world’s biggest AI companies, like OpenAI and Meta, have faced open lawsuits for allegedly pirating and copyrighting people's creative works, such as books and articles, to use as data to train their systems.
Maqbool mentions how “Māori data sovereignty and bicultural values can and should shape how AI is developed and used here.”
By ensuring this, it could combat indigenous data being taken and used for foreign benefits, without proper credentialization.
Maqbool says that without clear structures, increased AI adoption could “exacerbate existing inequities or create new harms.”
Another threat on the rise for data sovereignty and protection is Quantum computing, a powerful technology that is starting to intersect with these AI tools.
Maryland Division of Information Technology says a classic computer would take thousands of years to crack RSA encryption (digital signatures and secure data transmission), whilst a quantum computer could crack it in “within hours or even minutes.”
Data is the heart of artificial intelligence. It feeds AI tools so they can learn, adapt, and make decisions.
Shedlock says “the idea that data can be owned by an individual is a very pakeha term, a very western term. Info about a whānau, hapu, [or] iwi, is a very social thing. So, at one time there are many people who own that one piece of info.”
“Mātauranga is a specific piece of knowledge and when we use it to build new ideas, and new tools, we’ve created new mātauranga. So it’s not stagnant, it’s quite dynamic.”
“When we think about data and sovereignty, we really should be thinking about indigenous, social perspectives.”
“That social communities have the responsibility to look after information as opposed to an individual.”
Shedlock says, “the challenge for indigenous communities around the world is communicating that to pākeha.”
He says that Māori and indigenous communities have already been in the technology world for a long time and in some way are being held back from exploring what they know online about “social communities, humans, tribal, ceremonial, and rituals. These terms are terms that pakeha are trying to get rid of.”
With more than 100 iwi in Aotearoa, all with their own dialects and generations worth of knowledge systems, it could be hard to capture this contextual and holistic information in an AI format.
Having Māori-led research and development behind AI tools that engage in Māori-related services would, firstly, ensure that the nuances of elements of te ao Māori, like te reo, are preserved. For example, ‘whakaaro’ can be interpreted as ‘thought’, ‘opinion’, ‘idea’, ‘understanding’ or ‘intention’, depending on the way it is used.
Secondly, it would help keep te reo attached to the whole, rather than treating it like its own independent element. This is because many Māori regard the language as a gateway element to the many other elements in te ao Māori, such as tikanga, kawa, and pūrākau, all of which inform the language and give it meaning.
Shedlock says it is inevitable for some of your personal information to end up online, but what we can do is hold on to the aspects of what it means to be Māori.
“Those really minute atomic habits that we have, kaitiakitanga, being stewards of our environment, tika and pono, being truthful and honest.”
“We communicate these on a regular basis and if we hold onto those valuable snippets of info, they also give us gateways into other doors in the Māori world,” says Shedlock.
Last month, Minister of Digitising, Judith Collins, mentioned how “AI systems are evolving rapidly” and that government use and policy will adapt as the tech develops.
Maqbool says it is vital to embed te ao Māori and kaupapa that honor knowledge, land, and whakapapa within these AI systems, as well as supporting Māori-governed research centres.
This would ensure that indigenous knowledge and values are not lost behind as government policy adapts and our digital world is restructured with these new powerful technologies.
Shedlock says he is not too worried about AI, but he’s more fussed about what it looks like in connection to quantum technologies.
“When we have more whānau in this realm of AI and Quantum theory, then we can turn our attention to what we think the next problem is going to be.”
“I like to think about some of the stories I heard from some of the rangatira I'm around. There were some from Ngai Tahu who said: we must remember to remember, because that is where our future is.”
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