ChatGPT’s Impact on Te Reo Māori: Insights from Data Sovereignty Experts

ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence language model, has raised concerns among Te reo Māori and data sovereignty experts. During a demonstration at Waikato University, associate professor of computer science Te Taka Keegan asked ChatGPT to write in te reo Māori, and the quality of the language was impressive. However, Keegan raised concerns about where the data was sourced from, and the potential impact on the language. If a very good quality of Māori is produced by ChatGPT, the traditional version of the language may shift. This could lead to the loss of sovereignty over the language and threaten Māori identity, Ngapera Riley added. She reminded people that what ChatGPT produces should not be used as a primary source, and that human auditing is necessary. Te reo Māori champion Sonny Ngatai said the language could survive AI, but protecting Māori intellectual property rights was important.
Keegan thought Māori could retain sovereignty by cutting off AI tools from the mothership, and training it by Māori at an iwi level. Despite the challenges, Riley and Keegan were generally positive about AI, as long as Māori were actively involved in the process. Riley hopes ChatGPT will help preserve the language, but emphasised the human element in inputting and verifying language sources. Māori data sovereignty experts will monitor and respond to the potential impact of ChatGPT on the language.