AI can help protect threatened languages — but it can also exploit them – Canadian Geographic
Apr 20, 2026
While racing to protect cultural knowledge from extraction and misuse, Indigenous innovators are developing AI and virtual reality tools to teach, preserve and carry their languages into the future
AN INDIGENOUS language holds community connection, generations of sacred knowledge, a unique worldview and cultural nuance. A language roots a speaker in the voice of their ancestors while giving strength to be a voice of the future. Yet, when it comes to our world of rapidly advancing technology and artificial intelligence, a language is also data. And Indigenous data, like land, must be fiercely protected.
“There’s a huge interest in getting access to our [Indigenous] data, our content, simply because it’s unpoisoned by those language models,” says Michael Running Wolf, a Northern Cheyenne and Lakota computer engineer and researcher who’s working to revitalize Indigenous languages using virtual reality and AI, all while prioritizing Indigenous sovereignty. (Running Wolf is referring to Large Language Models, AI systems that can process, generate and predict language after being trained on vast amounts of data.)
