Dates and Venue

Queer in AI Workshop: Saturday, July 29, 9:15 - 17:00 HST, Room 316c, Hawai’i Convention Center

Social: Saturday, July 29th, 17:45-20:00 HST, Location TBA

Schedule

• 09:15 Welcome Ceremony

Theme 1: Large Models, Small Communities

• 09:30 Big Tech Imperialism and AI. Keoni Mahelona, Te Hiku Media.

• 10:00 Posters, Sponsors & Coffee

Theme 2: Indigenous Data

• 10:20 Charting collective courses: Hawaiian data futures & AI. Hina Puamohala, Awaiaulu.

• 10:50 Indigenous design thinking using Artificial Intelligence. Garry Oker, Doig River First Nations.

• 11:20 Protecting the future: Data sovereignty and the Kaitiakitanga License. Peter Lucas Jones & Suzanne Duncan, Te Reo Irirangi o Te Hiku o Te Ika.

• 11:50 Lunch

Theme 3: The State of the Art in Indigenous AI

• 13:00 Bilingual automatic speech transcription for Te reo Māori and New Zealand English. Lee Stevens & Miles Thompson, Papa Reo.

• 13:30 Automatic Speech Recognition and Natural Language Processing in Hawaiian. ʻŌiwi Parker Jones, Oxford.

• 14:00 Michael Running Wolf.

• 14:30 Johnson Witehira, IDIA.

• 15:00 Posters, Sponsors & Coffee

Theme 4: AI as a tool to empower indigenous communities

• 15:20 Indigenous Design Methods influence on Human-Computer Interaction and AI Design. Kari Noe, University of Hawaiʻi.

• 15:50 Data Sovereinty & AI Ethics. Michelle Lee Brown & Caroline Old Coyote

• 16:20 Discussion - Levers of power for indigenous peoples to lead their own AI initiatives

• 17:00 Closing

Speakers and Panelists

Suzanne Duncan

Protecting the future: Data sovereignty and the Kaitiakitanga License

Oiwi Parker Jones

Hawaiian NLP and ASR

Oiwi Parker Jones heads the Neural Processing Lab (PNPL) within the University of Oxford's Department of Engineering Science. He is also the Hugh Price Fellow in Computer Science at Jesus College, Oxford, and a Principal Investigator at the Oxford Robotics Institute (ORI). A founding member of Pūnana Leo o Hilo, Ke Kula Kaiapuni o Keaukaha, and Nāwahīokalaniʻōpuʻu, Oiwi grew up speaking Hawaiian in Hawaiʻi when the language was still banned. His doctoral research focused on low-resource NLP for Hawaiian. Although the scope of his research has broadened over the years, for example to include foundational work on brain-computer interfaces, he continues to drive progress in Hawaiian NLP and ASR.

Peter-Lucas Jones

Protecting the future: Data sovereignty and the Kaitiakitanga License

Peter-Lucas (Te Aupōuri, Ngāi Takoto, Ngāti Kahu) is the Chief Executive Officer of Te Hiku Media and an experienced governor in the Māori media eco-system. He is the Chair of Te Whakaruruhau o ngā Reo Irirangi Māori, Chairman of Te Rūnanga Nui o Te Aupōuri, Deputy Chair of Māori Television, and an advisory board member of Te Pūnaha Matatini, a Centre of Research Excellence for Complex Systems. As a trusted kaitiaki of Māori data, Peter-Lucas negotiates the responsibility of protecting iwi and Māori data while meeting the needs of funders and the expectations of iwi and hapū. Peter-Lucas has terrestrial and digital broadcasting experience, working with kaumātua and marae to record and provide access to te reo ā-iwi, tikanga ā-iwi, kōrero tuku iho and iwi history. This experience has seen the development of a Kaitiakitanga License for Te Hiku Media that provides a framework to guide the use of Māori data from a haukāinga perspective.

Hina Puamohala Kneubuhl

Charting collective courses: Hawaiian data futures & AI

Hina is a language advocate, translator, researcher, writer, storyteller, and kapa maker who holds undergraduate degrees in Hawaiian language and botany, as well as a master’s degree in Hawaiian language from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. She is one of three founders of the Hawaiian fashion company Kealopiko, where she specializes in the research, writing, and storytelling behind the company’s designs. She is also a translator with Awaiāulu, with a focus on rendering 19th century Hawaiian language writings into English. Her work in re-indexing the Bishop Museum's Hawaiian language oral history collection and her use of the Ka Leo Hawaiʻi archive in her master's project are the fire in her passion for spoken language and its importance in the revitalization and normalization of ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi.

Keoni Mahelona

Big Tech Imperialism and AI

Keoni (kanaka Maoli) is the CTO at Te Hiku Media and a leading practitioner of indigenous data sovereignty. Originally from Anahola on the island of Kauaʻi, Hawaiʻi, Keoni has been living and working in Te Hiku o Te Ika for over 10 years having first arrived in Aotearoa as a Fulbright Scholar. As a driving force behind the development of digital innovation projects that seek to secure the future of te reo Māori and other indigenous languages, Keoni makes decisions every day to protect the sovereignty of Māori data and technologies.

Kari Noe

Indigenous Design Methods influence on Human-Computer Interaction and AI Design

Kari Noe is a PhD student of Computer Science at the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa. Noe is the co-lead of Create(x) at the Academy for Creative Media at UH West Oʻahu. Create(x) is an immersive surround-screen living laboratory for students to showcase their works at the intersection of creative media, computation, culture, art and science. Noe is also a staff member at the Office of Indigenous Innovation co-managing the project portfolios for EPSCoR’s Change Hawaiʻi’s seed projects. Noe’s expertise is in designing for education and training software that utilize extended reality (XR) technologies and equitable technological design practice with a focus on Indigenous communities (specifically the Kanaka Maoli community). She has worked on Kilo Hōkū, a virtual reality simulation intended to train beginner-level navigation students in the basic celestial concepts for modern Hawaiian wayfinding. Kilo Hōkū is currently being used in high school level modern Hawaiian wayfinding programs. Wao Kiʻi is an augmented reality environment housed in Create(x). Through Wao Kiʻi, Noe developed an equitable design framework for XR cultural heritage exhibition projects as well as researched ways to build familiarity with basic Hawaiian grammar and vocabulary without the use of an intermediary language (English).

Garry Oker

Indigenous design thinking using Artificial Intelligence

Garry Oker MA, Beaver/ Dene song keeper, artist / painter, cross- cultural facilitator and designer. In November 2017, Garry was elected Councillor and now serving 3rd term with a portfolio of cultural heritage reconciliation in governance and policy. Garry drums and sings ceremonial songs at public venues and is leading a cultural heritage design specialist through large scale public-art exhibits and production. He has presented Nationally and internationally for 20 years. Most recent was at the National heritage trust conference in Toronto, Canada November 2022.

Over the last past 5 years he has worked with Chief and Council and staff at Doig River First Nation to complete the Treaty Land Claim settlement (TLE) and the designing and building an urban reserve (Nachine Commons) in Fort st John, BC. Garry promotes DRFN Business interest through multiple cross-cultural training workshops to industry and government and provides leadership for the infrastructure development at T’se K’wa (Charlie Lake cave) a 12,500 year old National Heritage Site. Garry also serves as creative director for the BC Hydro Site C Dam project involving 13 communities.

Garry continues to learn and apply innovative design ideas in implementing UNN declaration and is a graduate from St. Lawrence College in Fashion Design and visual arts and has a Master of Arts Degree in Leadership and Training from Royal Roads University.

Call for Contributions

We are excited to announce our call for contributions for the Queer in AI Workshop at the 2023 ICML Conference. We are hosting an informal poster session; we invite ICML attendees to present work accepted to the conference or workshops, or other relevant work. We’re so excited to help spotlight works that will support Indigenous and queer research and people. We also welcome contributions about general topics in machine learning, AI, NLP, ethics, or related areas by Indigenous and/or queer people. Accepted contributions will be invited to present during our poster session at the Indigenous in AI and Queer in AI workshop during the 2023 ICML Conference.

This workshop is non-archival, and we welcome work that has been previously published in other venues, as well as work-in-progress. No submissions will be desk-rejected. 

Submissions

Submission is electronic, using the CMT platform. All submissions should be anonymized. Please refrain from including personally identifying information in your submission.

All authors with accepted work will have FULL control over how their name appears in public listings of accepted submissions.

Formatting

You can either submit your work in research paper format or non-traditional format and media. Submissions need NOT be in English.

Mentorship

If you are writing a paper for the first time and need some help with your work, we strongly suggest you to join Queer in AI slack and contact the organizers there. One of us can help you and guide you on how to proceed.

If you are willing to help first-time authors, please feel free to indicate to us by joining the slack or emailing us.

Important Dates

All deadlines are Anywhere on Earth.

• Final submission deadline: July 20th

• Final notifications of acceptance: July 22nd

Click here to submit (Abstract is required)

Contact Us

Email: queerinai@gmail.com

Code of Conduct

Please read the Queer in AI code of conduct, which will be strictly followed at all times. Recording (screen recording or screenshots) is prohibited. All participants are expected to maintain the confidentiality of other participants.

ACL 2023 adheres to the ACL Code of Conduct and Queer in AI adheres to Queer in AI Anti-harassment policy. Any participant who experiences harassment or hostile behavior may contact the ACL exec team, or contact the Queer in AI Safety Team. Please be assured that if you approach us, your concerns will be kept in strict confidence, and we will consult with you on any actions taken.

Call for organizers

Joining the organization team is a great way to meet queer folks and mentors in our field and understanding inclusivity issues. We need folks to help us organize our events and socials (EACL, ACL and EMNLP 2023). You don’t need any prior experience / background to join our team, everyone is welcome! Fill up our form here to join.