Photo: Former Vuntut Gwitchin Chief Dana Tizya-Tramm (right) and former Kwanlin Dün Chief Doris Bill speak with reporters on Oct. 11, 2022 / Gabrielle Plonka, Yukon News
The former chief of Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation is launching an AI network across First Nations.
Dana Tizya-Tramm is the director of Nadlii, a non-profit dedicated to Indigenous data sovereignty according to its website.
Tizya-Tramm spoke with the News from Ottawa on July 17: he was there speaking with Canadian government officials for partnership to support the endeavour of empowering every First Nation in Canada with a military-grade modular data centre.
Military-grade modular data centres are sea cans filled with millions of dollars of graphics-processing units, according to Tizya-Tramm. They support drones and soldiers in warfare, but have also supported mining and industrial projects, he said.
These modular data centres have the hardware that people use to mine cryptocurrency, said Tizya-Tramm, but they can also support artificial intelligence systems as well.
He said the community would have access to the infrastructure at a low cost, as Nadlii does not want to own the infrastructure or data.
Each modular data centre would be attached to what Tizya-Tramm called the One Mind Compute Network: a decentralized network where First Nations across Canada would share progress and information.
“We foresee this network, this decentralized network, not only being a key to implementation and modernization and reconnection to the land for First Nations, but it can also offer the rest of the world the only AI ethical compute in the world,” Tizya-Tramm said.
“We see a future where multiple modular data centres across this country tied to a network where First Nations are able to share compute knowledge, AI that will resemble our old trade routes, where we encrypted our economies, our knowledge and our alliances in our trade languages, and we chose who participated in that,” Tizya-Tramm said.
The data centres could be used for a variety of purposes within the communities, Tizya-Tramm said.
He gave the example of using artificial intelligence to create land use plans for self-governing Yukon First Nations. It would take public satellite data, overlay the Umbrella Final Agreement, and create land use planning calculators for First Nations.
“It becomes so accessible that a community could sit down with a specifically trained artificial intelligence and curate conversations in real time,” he said.
This usage could save Yukon government and First Nations millions of dollars, Tizya-Tramm said, at a time when it is difficult to get funding for land use plans.
The artificial intelligence could also be used to educate First Nations citizens on treaties and land agreements, Tizya-Tramm said.
Tizya-Tramm said the modular data centres are so small they do not require liquid cooling like water. They have found that even an electric Ford F150 truck can be used as a battery to power the centre.
Currently, data centres which store many artificial intelligence servers use significant amounts of water for cooling the electrical components, according to the United Nations.
The project is drawing a line in the sand regarding the current reality of artificial intelligence, according to Tizya-Tramm.
“Nobody in Canada owns their data, nor do they own the AI infrastructure. Any interaction with any public AI, your data is being taken so that that company can turn it into a product and sell it back to you,” said Tizya-Tramm.
“Technically, we’re tilling the fields for our techno-overlords in Silicon Valley, and the land is data.”
Tizya-Tramm said large tech companies like Microsoft exist to maximize their profits — not the affluence of communities or the sovereignty of families. People have a right to their data, which is intellectual property which the producer should benefit from, Tizya-Tramm said.
“The amount of data that we’re generating is generating money for other companies on our backs, Canadians, and as an Indigenous person, I have seen this before, and it will not end well,” Tizya-Tramm said.
“The whole new world has been born, an invisible one of data, and these AI companies are sailing towards the data lands of our children with a copy of manifest destiny in their back pocket while they sail on the digital mayflowers,” Tizya-Tramm said.
Tizya-Tramm said he began to work with artificial intelligence as he disliked how it has been thrust upon the public to grapple with.
“We can show through, through studies that there has been an over 60 per cent increase in suicides in young girls in the United States from 12 to 17, and the only difference is that Facebook was introduced into their lives,” Tizya-Tramm said.
“So we are cleaning up Facebook’s inequities with our dead children while that CEO rakes in a trillion dollars, and we hold the bill.”
Tizya-Tramm said that artificial intelligence, applied through Indigenous teachings and principles, can strengthen communities and the land, in a way that current AI practices will not.
“I know that Indigenous peoples inherently hold the relational logic to meet this in a good way, with ceremony,” Tizya-Tramm said.
Tizya-Tramm said the Canadian officials he met with indicated a willingness to create a partnership. However, he said that Canada is in a difficult position when it comes to artificial intelligence, having invested $2.4 billion into artificial intelligence where the United States has invested hundreds of billions of dollars.
Canada is working hard to develop funding programs and innovation funds, said Tizya-Tramm, but they have to compete with the United States.
“Not only should Canada be a leader in ethical AI development and data sovereignty, but First Nations have the opportunity as a people who have been advocating and fighting for their sovereignty for generations, make them likely the most forward thinking individuals in the world to address and understand this issue,” Tizya-Tramm said.
“This is about the regaining of our sovereignty to make decisions that affect future generations and Canada today, this data back, this is the new land back.”
Nadlii is currently working on finalizing memorandums of understanding with several First Nations, according to Tizya-Tramm.
“I can tell you that multiple First Nations this year will receive this technology on their lands, setting and making history.”