This video goes further in depth into the work of Michael Running Wolf, from my Module 3 Post 3, as well as the work of his wife Caroline Running Wolf, who is pursuing a PhD in Anthropology at UBC, studying the potential application of XR technologies in the revitalization of Indigenous languages. This video is filled with valuable information regarding the challenges and potential solutions with technology and Indigenous languages.
One of the highlights that I found particularly interesting was that Michael Running Wolf and his colleagues had found a way to “fork” the coding of open source AI technologies to incorporate Indigenous languages. They had found that most AI technologies were incredibly biased to the western world and specifically California, where google headquarters is located. They had to find a way to use the existing technology and adapt it to the different Indigenous languages they were working with. Furthermore, the complexity of polysynthetic languages in how they have no finite dictionary, as there are virtually an infinite combination of root words, prefixes, suffixes etc.
