Recent announcements by Université Laval and Anthropic regarding a new initiative to advance artificial intelligence (AI) research in Québec’s low-resource languages have prompted Heritage Lab to reflect on a question that extends far beyond a single research project. The initiative proposes to study the behaviour of large language models using Québec French and Indigenous languages, with the stated objective of improving AI systems for underrepresented linguistic communities.
We welcome innovation. We recognize the tremendous potential of AI to support Indigenous language revitalization, education, accessibility, and cultural continuity. However, innovation without Indigenous governance is not reconciliation.
As an Inuit-led organization working at the intersection of AI, digital sovereignty and Indigenous language protection, Heritage Lab believes this announcement raises important questions that deserve transparent answers—not only from Université Laval and Anthropic, but from every institution seeking to work with Indigenous languages in the age of AI.
This letter is not intended to condemn research. It is intended to encourage a conversation that Indigenous Peoples themselves must lead.
Indigenous Languages Are Not an Extension of Québec French
One aspect of the announcement immediately caught our attention. The initiative presents Québec French and Indigenous languages together as examples of “low-resource languages.” Technically, this may be accurate from a machine learning perspective. Politically and culturally, however, these languages occupy entirely different realities.
Inuktitut, Innu, Naskapi, Cree, Anishinaabemowin and the many other Indigenous languages spoken across Québec are not regional variations of Québec’s linguistic heritage. They are the living languages of distinct Indigenous Nations with their own rights, governments, histories, and responsibilities. This distinction matters.
When Indigenous languages become incorporated into research initiatives designed around broader provincial or institutional priorities, there is a risk that Indigenous self-determination becomes secondary to research objectives. Our languages are not simply additional datasets that strengthen AI research - they are expressions of Indigenous sovereignty.
AI Colonialism
Globally, AI colonialism is extracting Indigenous languages, knowledge, and cultural expressions as valuable training resources for AI systems without Indigenous Nations exercising meaningful governance over how those resources are accessed, used, or governed.
Canada’s national AI strategy recognizes opportunities for Indigenous participation in AI, yet provides comparatively little discussion of Indigenous data sovereignty or Indigenous governance over Indigenous language data. Governments, research institutions, and technology companies are increasingly recognizing Indigenous languages as strategically valuable for artificial intelligence, multilingual technologies, and digital inclusion. This raises important questions about Indigenous governance, consent, ownership, and data sovereignty that cannot be overlooked.
Indigenous Peoples are paternalized and othered when the ‘we’, the governing state, asserts the power in this dynamic through a tokenistic and outdated ritual called collaboration with the Indigenous Peoples, i.e. ‘other’. In these contexts, we are placed as stakeholders when we are in fact the inherent governing rights-holders of our languages and cultures.
Heritage Lab sees these developments as evidence of a broader global trend: Indigenous languages are becoming strategically valuable in the AI economy while Indigenous governance frameworks have not kept pace.
Indigenous Research Requires Indigenous Governance
Based on the publicly available information, it remains unclear how Indigenous Nations will participate in the governance of the Université Laval–Anthropic initiative. Heritage Lab therefore respectfully calls upon Université Laval and Anthropic to publicly clarify how they will be conducting ethical research:
- Which Indigenous Nations, governments or language authorities participated in designing this initiative?
- How will Indigenous Nations exercise governance throughout the project?
- How will Free, Prior and Informed Consent be operationalized?
- Who owns, controls, and governs any Indigenous language data used or generated?
- What safeguards exist to prevent future uses beyond the original purposes?
- What tangible and lasting benefits will return to the Indigenous Nations whose languages make this work possible?
- Will Indigenous Nations retain the ability to withdraw their language data from the project?
Questions Every Indigenous Nation Need to Ask
As AI research involving Indigenous languages accelerates, Heritage Lab encourages Indigenous governments, language authorities, and organizations to ask difficult questions before agreeing to participate in any initiative.
- Who defines the research agenda?
- Who owns the data?
- Who governs future uses?
- Who benefits?
- What happens when the project ends?
- Does this initiative strengthen Indigenous self-determination, or does it primarily strengthen someone else's AI?
These questions should become standard practice—not because we oppose technology, but because Indigenous Peoples have the right to determine how our languages, knowledge and cultures participate in the digital future.
Calls to Action on Indigenous Governance
Therefore, Heritage Lab offers the following Calls To Action to generate dialogue that embodies reconciliation:
- Heritage Lab calls upon universities, governments, technology companies, and research funders to recognize that Indigenous languages require more than inclusion within AI initiatives. They require Indigenous governance.
- We call upon Indigenous organizations across Canada to develop their own AI governance principles before others define them on our behalf.
- We encourage funders to support Indigenous-led AI research, Indigenous-controlled language infrastructure, and Indigenous governance institutions—not simply Indigenous participation in externally designed projects.
- We invite Indigenous language organizations, governments, and technology leaders to work together to establish Indigenous-led principles for artificial intelligence and Indigenous languages.
Heritage Lab welcomes dialogue with Université Laval, Anthropic, Indigenous governments, and language organizations. Our goal is not to discourage innovation, but to ensure that innovation proceeds through respectful partnerships grounded in Indigenous governance, transparency, and trust.
For generations, colonialism sought to separate Indigenous Peoples from our lands, our children, and our knowledge. In the age of AI, we must ensure it does not separate us from our languages by treating them as data before recognizing them as living expressions of Indigenous Nations. The next chapter of reconciliation will not be decided only by who protects Indigenous languages—it will also be decided by who governs them in the age of AI.
Heritage Lab believes Indigenous Peoples should not merely participate in the AI revolution; we should lead the governance, development and stewardship of AI systems involving our languages, cultures, and knowledge.
