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Can AI Save Indigenous Languages? | Michael Running Wolf (Ep. 25)

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Content provided by Baratunde Thurston. All podcast content including episodes, graphics, and podcast descriptions are uploaded and provided directly by Baratunde Thurston or their podcast platform partner. If you believe someone is using your copyrighted work without your permission, you can follow the process outlined here https://podcastplayer.com/legal.

Every two weeks, the world loses a language. Most of those losses are happening in the U.S. In this episode of Life with Machines, Baratunde talks with Michael Running Wolf, a Northern Cheyenne technologist using AI to help Indigenous communities reclaim their languages—and their power. But here’s the twist: it’s not just that AI can help save these languages. It turns out AI needs them.Because when you train language models on Indigenous languages—languages that are dense, precise, and built for oral transmission—the models perform better. More accurate. Less prone to error. That’s not a diversity talking point. That’s a systems upgrade. Michael shares his remarkable journey from growing up without electricity on a reservation to working on Amazon Alexa—and now building VR classrooms and community-owned data systems. His work flips the script on who gets to shape the future of technology, and on what terms.

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Work with Life With Machines: [email protected]

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Write to Blair: [email protected]

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Created and Executive Produced by: Elizabeth Stewart and Baratunde Thurston

Executive Producer and Showrunner: Alie Kilts

Senior Producer and Writer: Alex Stone

Associate Producer: Layne Deyling Cherland

Video Editor: Erik Shute

Videographer and Audio Engineer: Erik Shute

Theme Music: Andy Clausen

Special Envoy to the Machines: Peter Loforte

Life with Machines is a Multiverses Media production

Sponsored by Lenovo

#AIforGood #IndigenousTech #LanguageRevitalization #EndangeredLanguages #MichaelRunningWolf #LifeWithMachines #NativeVoices #AIandCulture #DataSovereignty #TechForJustice #IndigenousAI #AIethics #OralTradition #VRinEducation #AIandEquity #FutureOfLanguage #Cheyenne #AIInnovation

  continue reading

32 episodes

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iconShare
 
Manage episode 489220486 series 3667793
Content provided by Baratunde Thurston. All podcast content including episodes, graphics, and podcast descriptions are uploaded and provided directly by Baratunde Thurston or their podcast platform partner. If you believe someone is using your copyrighted work without your permission, you can follow the process outlined here https://podcastplayer.com/legal.

Every two weeks, the world loses a language. Most of those losses are happening in the U.S. In this episode of Life with Machines, Baratunde talks with Michael Running Wolf, a Northern Cheyenne technologist using AI to help Indigenous communities reclaim their languages—and their power. But here’s the twist: it’s not just that AI can help save these languages. It turns out AI needs them.Because when you train language models on Indigenous languages—languages that are dense, precise, and built for oral transmission—the models perform better. More accurate. Less prone to error. That’s not a diversity talking point. That’s a systems upgrade. Michael shares his remarkable journey from growing up without electricity on a reservation to working on Amazon Alexa—and now building VR classrooms and community-owned data systems. His work flips the script on who gets to shape the future of technology, and on what terms.

------------

THANKS TO OUR BRAND PARTNER

The series is powered by Lenovo

CONNECT WITH US

Watch this episode on Youtube!

Get our newsletter for deeper insights, chances to influence the show, and more experiments and calls to action!

------------

Follow us!

Instagram

TikTok

Threads

LinkedIn

Work with Life With Machines: [email protected]

Send Questions, Comments, or Ideas: [email protected]

Write to Blair: [email protected]

------------

Created and Executive Produced by: Elizabeth Stewart and Baratunde Thurston

Executive Producer and Showrunner: Alie Kilts

Senior Producer and Writer: Alex Stone

Associate Producer: Layne Deyling Cherland

Video Editor: Erik Shute

Videographer and Audio Engineer: Erik Shute

Theme Music: Andy Clausen

Special Envoy to the Machines: Peter Loforte

Life with Machines is a Multiverses Media production

Sponsored by Lenovo

#AIforGood #IndigenousTech #LanguageRevitalization #EndangeredLanguages #MichaelRunningWolf #LifeWithMachines #NativeVoices #AIandCulture #DataSovereignty #TechForJustice #IndigenousAI #AIethics #OralTradition #VRinEducation #AIandEquity #FutureOfLanguage #Cheyenne #AIInnovation

  continue reading

32 episodes

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