This AI-generated image depicts a hybrid world in which a digital system emerges from and interacts with an Indigenous community to provide sustained access to traditional knowledge, stories, and practices.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is the most sig­nificant emerging technology since the printing press and it is having an increas­ingly profound impact on everything in our world that involves capturing, man­aging, and reacting to information. No one can predict how far AI will go in transforming science, technological inno­vation, health and medicine, education, and the very sociopolitical systems within which we live. We are heading toward a world of AI immersion that is challenging the world’s Indigenous peoples to join in the design of AI systems that are ground­ed in and reinforce the unique knowl­edges, languages, cultural practices, and values of every distinct cultural group that wishes to remain distinct.

Tribal colleges and universities (TCUs) are ideally positioned to take a leading role in engaging Native communities in participatory research and design of AI systems integrated into existing efforts in climate adaptation, public health and safety, economic development, and the preservation of Native languages, knowl­edges, and practices. They can begin by participating in collaborative planning and capacity-building to establish a TCU-based Indigenous AI innovation network, potentially coordinating with Abundant Intelligences, a Canada-funded AI initia­tive that includes a network of AI devel­opment projects across several Indigenous communities. TCUs that engage can lever­age access to national computing resources, training and education oppor­tunities for both faculty and students, and funding of collaborative projects that fur­ther tribal and TCU AI priorities.

The process of identifying and further­ing community-based Indigenous AI pri­orities must be wide-ranging and trans­disciplinary, ideally including national Indigenous thought leaders involved in issues with potential AI applications. The Indigenous AI research agenda should follow a continuous iterative process, driving the formation of research collabo­rations and specific research projects as communities test new AI system ideas and as the technologies associated with AI continue to evolve. It is particularly important that the work of all partners remains grounded in the “six R’s” of Indigenous research: relationship, respect, reciprocity, relevance, representation, and responsibility.

One priority area is Native language systems. Large and small Indigenous lan­guage models are being developed to sup­port Native language learning, preserva­tion, and revitalization efforts. A commu­nity of practice in Native language AI would provide a network of support and potential research collaborators available to every tribe’s efforts to employ AI to pre­serve and maintain their language.

AI solutions that support cultural knowledge preservation can also be developed. An Indigenous model that incorporates knowledge in multiple formats, such as text (cultural narratives, histories) or images (symbol systems, physical artifacts), into a single relational system can be made available to AI learning and generative processes that reflect Indigenous values and sensibilities, reliably framing and accessing knowledge that is preserved in traditional stories and story­telling practices.

Indigenous governance and decision-making is another high-priority interest area AI can be applied to address. AI-powered decision-making support tools could help tribal governments coordinate resources across agencies, schools, and partners, responding more effectively to health, safety, and environmental chal­lenges while drawing on local knowledge. A uniquely Indigenous AI resource man­agement-decision support system would include not only human organizations and resources but would also take into account and be designed to preserve inter­dependencies with and among plants, animals, and other environmental fea­tures that comprise the set of relationships that both underpin ecosystem stability and reflect traditional understandings.

Indigenous AI work must include an understanding and appreciation of AI as a potential resource—and source of risks—with respect to tribal sovereignty and sus­tainability goals. Most importantly, these approaches must align with Indigenous AI research and tribal data sovereignty protocols, as well as research governance requirements. Fundamental to this is controlling access to Indigenous data, especially given the need for shared com­puting resources. The NSF-funded Sovereign Data Network, a pilot project developed by Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute, Navajo Technical University, and the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, provides a model for local management of tribal data with controlled access to regional and national AI resources. Arizona State University (ASU) and part­ners across the Southwest and Midwest have begun exploring this infrastructure in support of tribal AI projects.

ASU’s AI Development Lab is offering access to secure, private AI infrastructure that enables users to engage with the latest AI capabilities while retaining complete control over any data or other knowledge resources involved. This approach builds on a promising sovereign infrastructure model involving managed access to remote computing resources developed by the University of Colorado Boulder’s Environmental Science Innovation and Impact Lab and CyVerse, an NSF-funded open science workspace.

Growing an Indigenous AI workforce is another priority. TCUs are well-posi­tioned to contribute to developing an Indigenous AI curriculum that not only provides the technical skillsets needed for AI developers but also focuses on AI sys­tem design methods and operations processes that could be broadly character­ized as decolonizing—a topic best left to tribal communities to define and explore. The Indigenous AI curriculum could be delivered collaboratively and made avail­able to every TCU student with opportu­nities for hands-on AI development work.

Faculty and staff at ASU, the University of Oregon, Carnegie Mellon University, and Concordia University, home of the Abundant Intelligences project, are reach­ing out to work with TCUs. The authors of this article are available to facilitate engagement with these groups and other potential partners who can assist tribal colleges in collectively helping to shape the future of Indigenous AI.