Artificial intelligence is being explored as a way to preserve Alaska Native languages.
ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Many indigenous languages across Alaska are at risk of being lost, and present-day advocates are working toward preservation. One idea being explored is the possibility of utilizing artificial intelligence.
Nathan Bennett is a software engineer from Microsoft and a citizen of the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Tribes of Alaska. On Wednesday, he highlighted how this new technology can be used as a tool, not a substitute, to protect and preserve these languages. He says languages like Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian are complex and would need special AI approaches due to their unique word structures, grammar, and flexible word order.“In order to like truly make the experience cultural and impactful to learners, they need to represent like our culture and the only way for us to do that is to build these models in trustworthy environments where they’re protected,” Bennett said. Bennett says while technology has been used to hurt native groups and take away their languages and culture, he wants to ensure they have full access and understanding of these models in order to pass this knowledge to the next generation. “Putting that out there into the world and stuff and their information and their data and things like that makes people uneasy. And especially when we don’t completely understand everything and how it works and how we can protect that.” Bennett said. “We only have so much time. There’s only so many fluent speakers still alive and most of them are very old. So there’s only so many years we have left to get this data properly documented and labeled and start training these models before it’s potentially lost forever.”Judge sentences man for hitting, killing friend with car in 2021 on Glenn Highway Manslaughter charge dismissed, an Anchorage nurse practitioner accused in overdose death goes back to courtPilots say landing in rural Alaska can be challenging including the airstrip in Nanwalek, the site of a deadly crashArctic Gardens: Adding native plants to your garden
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