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Indigenous Peoples and AI: Defending Rights, Shaping Futures

While AI can support cultural revitalization, youth empowerment, and even adaptation to climate chance, it often reinforces bias, exclusion, and misrepresentation towards Indigenous Peoples.

Most AI systems are built without Indigenous input, risking the misuse of their data, knowledge, and identities.

Besides, massive data centers can also . This is a new issue added to the barriers to accessing new technologies, especially in rural areas, excluding Indigenous from full participation in AI-related processes.

To unlock AI¡¯s full potential, Indigenous Peoples must be respected as rights-holders, co-creators, and decision-makers. Meaningful inclusion, data sovereignty, and culturally grounded innovation are key to ensuring AI empowers their communities.

The upcoming International Day of the World¡¯s Indigenous Peoples will put a spotlight on this through its theme, .

! Let¡¯s leave no one behind. #IndigenousPeoples

August 8, 2025
9:00 - 10:30 a.m. EDT, New York time

for this online UN event where speakers will discuss how Indigenous Peoples rights can be ensured in the age of AI, and the associated challenges and opportunities Indigenous Peoples face.

We need indigenous communities for a better world

There are an estimated 476 million Indigenous Peoples in the world living across 90 countries. They make up less than 6 per cent of the world's population, but account for at least 15 per cent of the poorest. They speak an overwhelming majority of the world¡¯s estimated 7,000 languages and represent 5,000 different cultures.

Indigenous Peoples are inheritors and practitioners of unique cultures and ways of relating to people and the environment. They have retained social, cultural, economic and political characteristics that are distinct from those of the dominant societies in which they live. Despite their cultural differences, Indigenous Peoples from around the world share common problems related to the protection of their rights as distinct peoples.

Indigenous Peoples have sought recognition of their identities, their way of life and their right to traditional lands, territories and natural resources for years. Yet, throughout history, their rights have been violated. Indigenous Peoples today, are arguably among the most disadvantaged and vulnerable groups of people in the world. The international community now recognizes that special measures are required to protect their rights and maintain their distinct cultures and way of life.

In order to raise awareness of the needs of these population groups, every 9 August commemorates the International Day of the World¡¯s Indigenous Peoples, chosen in recognition of the first meeting of the UN Working Group on Indigenous Populations held in Geneva in 1982.