Harnessing Artificial Intelligence to Amplify Indigenous Knowledge for Climate Resilience: Towards Epistemologically Inclusive Climate Innovation

Résumé fourni par la source

The accelerating climate crisis demands innovative, inclusive solutions that transcend technocratic paradigms and centre historically marginalized knowledge systems. This study explores how artificial intelligence (AI), when ethically designed and epistemologically reimagined, can serve as a tool to amplify indigenous knowledge systems (IKS) for climate resilience. Grounded in epistemological pluralism, ethical AI theory and decolonial theory, the research adopts a qualitative exploratory design, utilizing systematic content analysis of 45 scholarly sources and semi-structured interviews with 10 indigenous leaders, technologists and ethicists. Findings reveal five major themes: the necessity of participatory AI design, the critical role of indigenous data sovereignty and ethics, the positioning of AI as a knowledge amplifier rather than a replacement, the importance of community capacity building and the centrality of relational ethics. The study proposes the AI-Indigenous Knowledge Co-Production System (AIK-CPS) model as a transformative framework for embedding indigenous worldviews, relational accountability and sovereignty into AI innovation processes. It argues that without intentional decolonial approaches, AI risks perpetuating epistemic injustice and exacerbating climate vulnerability among indigenous communities. Policy implications include the institutionalization of indigenous participation in AI and climate governance forums and the urgent enactment of indigenous data sovereignty laws. Practically, the study recommends embedding Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) protocols, fostering culturally sensitive design and cultivating long-term capacity-building partnerships. Repositioning AI as a vehicle for epistemological justice rather than technological colonization allows this research to contribute meaningfully to global efforts aimed at forging sustainable, relational and equitable climate futures.

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