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UH gets $17M to improve AI through Indigenous knowledge

Create(x) Co-Director Kari Noe and UH Director of Indigenous Innovation Kamuela Enos
UH News
Create(x) Co-Director Kari Noe and UH Director of Indigenous Innovation Kamuela Enos

A team at the University of Hawaiʻi is getting $17 million over the next six years to work on improving artificial intelligence through Indigenous knowledge.

The grant from Canada’s New Frontiers Research Fund will go to researchers and Indigenous practitioners.

The project, dubbed Abundant Intelligences: Expanding Artificial Intelligence through Indigenous Knowledge Systems, will include dozens of experts from eight universities and Indigenous organizations from Canada, the U.S. and New Zealand.

“There’s a lot of beauty that comes from people being allowed to practically dream and think about ways that they can take anything new and adapt it to serving the well-being of their community, but be accountable to some of the challenges that are baked in with any new idea,” said Kamuela Enos, co-applicant for the grant. "I think there is a lot to be explored.”

The teams will meet in locally-based pods to work with local communities. The Hawaiʻi pod will be based at the UH West Oʻahu’s Create(x) digital emerging media lab.

The lab features various virtual elements, including projecting virtual videos on the lab’s walls. The lab also provides technologies that teach Hawaiian vocabulary of native species and environmental change, modern Hawaiian wayfinding and more.

Cassie Ordonio is the culture and arts reporter for Hawaiʻi Public Radio. She previously worked for Honolulu Civil Beat, covering local government, education, homelessness and affordable housing. Contact her at cordonio@hawaiipublicradio.org.
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