The ubiquity of artificial intelligence applications can widen the digital divide if it excludes those who are slow to adopt the latest technologies. But AI can also narrow that divide. That’s what the first cohort of an AI development program at the Mila research centre in Montreal, aimed at Indigenous communities, is demonstrating.
In collaboration with the organization Indspire, which provides educational assistance to Indigenous communities in Canada, Mila presented the first cohort of its “Indigenous AI Pathfinders” program in Montreal on Wednesday morning. The event allowed a dozen young representatives from Inuit, Métis and First Nations communities to take the stage to unveil tools that could solve problems specific to their communities.
These tools address issues ranging from education to public health, population aging and isolation. For example, a tool called SAIGE was created to automate the search for financial aid that could allow students from Indigenous communities to extend their post-secondary education at low cost.
“We see in the national data that the employment rate is lower in Indigenous communities than in the general population. What we see when we isolate the data on these communities is that the employment rate is identical to that of the general population for holders of a post-secondary diploma. However, the lack of financial assistance is cited as the main obstacle to continuing their studies for a majority of young Indigenous people,” explained the three creators of SAIGE, Mary Gallernault, Garrett Hrechka and Jackson Campo on stage.
While there is no shortage of programs to provide financial assistance to Indigenous students, they are sometimes difficult to find, and the application process can be long and tedious. By letting AI identify, centralize and harmonize these aid programs, SAIGE believes it can remove a significant barrier to higher education in Indigenous communities across Canada.
Local and global
The beauty of a project like SAIGE is that it’s perfectly suited to the needs of Indigenous communities and can be replicated elsewhere. After all, who wouldn’t want an app that finds them financial aid, health care, or public services? (Another featured project called GoalGuru uses computer vision to improve hockey players’ slapshot technique—an application that would be no exception to the likes of Joé Juneau or Cole Caufield…)
This is one of the features of AI that program leaders at Mila have emphasized. “Part of our goal was to find global solutions to problems specific to indigenous communities,” explains the Duty Lynnsey Chartrand, Manager of Indigenous Projects, Public Policy and Inclusion at Mila. “It was important to find concrete solutions, but since AI is a technology of the future, we also had to think about avoiding other issues, such as limited access to the Internet, lack of digital literacy, etc.”
According to Mila, part of the solution is also to better raise awareness of the potential of AI across the country. Members of the current cohort will therefore have a role as ambassadors in their respective communities, but also in their potential professional environments, to facilitate the integration of future cohorts of young Indigenous people into the technology sector.
“We want to keep a connection with them once they leave the program,” says M.me Chartrand. “What messages do we want them to share next? We hope to create a community of support, [de gens] who will help their peers, but who will also be able to create some recognition of the issues of inclusivity that technology represents.”
Their role as ambassadors begins today: Mila is already looking for candidates for its 2025 cohort. The Montreal centre hopes to see more projects come out of it next summer. “As long as the quality of the projects is not affected,” says Lynnsey Chartrand.