African AI Governance Must Respect Indigenous Peoples, Expert Says
African governments are developing national AI strategies, but experts say they are neglecting the impact of AI on the environment and Indigenous rights.
As African countries develop their national artificial intelligence strategies, concerns about the impact of AI on the environment and Indigenous rights are being largely ignored.
The associated data centres require energy, water, and land, while their hardware depends on mineral supply chains. AI systems may collect and reproduce cultural, linguistic, and environmental knowledge without recognising that such information is often held collectively by a community, rather than by an individual.
### Environmental and Social Impact Assessments
African governments can lead by requiring environmental and social impact assessments for AI infrastructure. This would help protect water and land from unsustainable data centre development, and ensure that mineral demand does not drive ecosystem destruction or dispossession.
### Indigenous Participation in AI Governance
Indigenous peoples should be formal participants in AI governance and have control over their collective rights over cultural, linguistic, and environmental data. They should be recognised as decision-makers and rights holders, particularly when AI policies, infrastructure projects, or data practices affect their land, knowledge, or cultural heritage.
### Data Protection Systems
Conventional data protection systems tend to focus on individual privacy and do not adequately protect a community's collective rights over its language, cultural heritage, traditional knowledge, or territorial information. AI companies should audit their models for linguistic and cultural bias, include Indigenous leaders and experts throughout the process, and create mechanisms that allow communities to challenge or remove inaccurate or harmful representations.
### AI and Indigenous Knowledge
There are encouraging examples in which AI is supporting, rather than replacing, Indigenous peoples' knowledge. In the Amazon, Indigenous communities have worked with NGOs and researchers to use AI-supported satellite monitoring to detect illegal deforestation and mining. In Chad, participatory mapping and predictive analysis have been combined with pastoral knowledge to anticipate drought and protect herder's migration routes.
### Recommendations for World Leaders
World leaders must ensure that no AI system, policy, or infrastructure project affecting Indigenous peoples, their data, or their territories proceeds without their free, prior, and informed consent. This principle should apply across the entire AI value chain, from the extraction of minerals and construction of data centres to the collection of Indigenous peoples' knowledge and the deployment of AI tools in communities.
| Principle | Description | | --- | --- | | Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) | Indigenous peoples' consent must be obtained before AI projects affect their territories, data, or knowledge. | | Decision-Makers and Rights Holders | Indigenous peoples must be recognised as decision-makers and rights holders in AI governance. | | Collective Rights | Collective rights over cultural, linguistic, and environmental data must be protected. | | Environmental and Social Impact Assessments | Environmental and social impact assessments must be required for AI infrastructure. |
