Indigenous researchers are up against a ticking clock: Of the 4,000 Indigenous languages worldwide, one dies every two weeks with its last speaker. He leads First Languages AI Reality, an initiative of the Mila-Quebec Artificial Intelligence Institute, where researchers are building speech recognition models for over 200 endangered Indigenous languages in North America. However, first, he must overcome a major roadblock: There aren’t enough Indigenous computer scientist graduates — people who know the language and culture — to tackle these language preservation projects. “We only graduate one or two Indigenous Ph.D.s in AI and computer science every year,” he said. That’s where the handful of Indigenous engineers who do exist come in: They are leading organizations like First Languages AI Reality, IndigiGenius, Tech Natives and the Wihanble S’a Center for Indigenous AI to train Native American, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian computer science students to preserve Indigenous culture and language.

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