Press Release: “As artificial intelligence increasingly relies on language and cultural data, Indigenous communities face unprecedented opportunities and significant risks. While Indigenous languages and cultural knowledge can help shape more inclusive digital futures, too often communities have limited influence over how their data is collected, governed, used, or shared.
To address this challenge, The GovLab, Microsoft, and UNESCO are launching the New Commons Incubator for Indigenous Languages and Culture, a new initiative designed to support Indigenous-led efforts to develop data commons that preserve, steward, and responsibly govern language and cultural resources in the AI era.
Data commons are shared governance frameworks that enable communities to collectively decide how their data is managed, accessed, and used while ensuring that benefits flow back to the communities themselves. By supporting the development of Indigenous-led data commons, the Incubator seeks to strengthen community agency, support language revitalization, and ensure that Indigenous peoples can participate in shaping the future of AI on their own terms.
The Incubator is a capacity-building initiative that provides mentorship, training, technical guidance, and proposal development support. Participants will receive an in-person opportunity to collaborate and network with other participants, followed by six months of workshops, one-on-one clinics, expert mentorships, and peer learning opportunities. The program is designed to help teams prepare stronger proposals and will end with a final showcase where participants present these to potential funders, partners, and collaborators…(More)”.
