The Daily UbuntuThread 02 · Technology and Dehumanization · September 25, 2026
Teaching one another, even in code
In Montreal, a Mila program trains young Indigenous people in artificial intelligence so that tomorrow's technology carries their voices too.
1 · The scene
In Sept-Îles, Maïka dictates a voice message to her cousin. The app transcribes everything except her grandmother's name, which it replaces with an unrelated English word. She tries three times, then types the name by hand.
"It's no big deal," she tells herself. But she wonders who, among the people who trained this machine, had ever heard a voice like her family's.
Original vignette
2 · The documented case
Indigenous pathfinders in AI
On May 29, 2024, Mila, the Quebec artificial intelligence institute based in Montreal, welcomed the first cohort of its Indigenous Pathfinders in AI program, created with the organization Indspire. Twelve First Nations, Inuit and Métis participants, from places including Kahnawake, Nunatsiavut and the Qalipu Mi'kmaq First Nation, learned AI techniques, its promises and its pitfalls.
On August 14, 2024, they presented three prototypes designed for their communities: a tool for finding scholarships, an agricultural advice platform and a simulator to improve long-term care. A second cohort followed in 2025, and the program continues.
Its teaching draws on a Nehinuw concept, kiskinaumatowin, "teaching one another": knowledge flows in every direction, fed by each person's experience. One participant sums up the group's spirit: to build ethical AI, you need a diverse population around the systems.
When the people who design the machines look more like the people who use them, the biases of the past have fewer places to hide. It is a reconciliation that is also built in lines of code.
3 · The voice
“I think it's really important for Indigenous people to have a voice in this technology.”
4 · The question
Which voices around you have never yet been heard by the machines you use every day?
Sources
- Mila, "Introducing the First Cohort of the Indigenous Pathfinders in AI Program," June 19, 2024. mila.quebec
- Mila, "Mila hosted the first Indigenous Pathfinders in AI program," August 30, 2024. mila.quebec
- Mila, Indigenous Pathfinders in AI program page. mila.quebec
Every figure on this page links to a verifiable public source.
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