Youth are Preserving an Indigenous Language Through AI: Lakota AI Code Camp

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Written By Kevin Klingbeil
Group of young adults sitting on stairs wearing matching shits with instructors in the background

Lakota AI Camp

Lakota AI Code Camp (LAICC) is a three-week long summer program for high school students where they gain hands-on experience developing personalized mobile apps using industry standard software engineering practices, computer science, deep learning, and extended reality incorporating Indigenous knowledge and methods.

“I was really proud of myself…I just couldn’t believe it, that I created this AI”

-Niesha Marshall after she watched a purple go-kart zip ac cross her computer screen according to Teen Vogue.

Niesha was a 13-year-old student who completed LAICC in the summer of 2021. The camp is run at Black Hills State University and trains young students with little to no coding experience. The students get the opportunity to learn data science, machine learning, and app development in 3-weeks, according to the Teen Vogue article.

The camp aims to create an Indigenous talent pool and develop future experts who can digitally protect and steward Indigenous culture and languages.

NBCU Academy - This AI Camp Is Teaching Teens to Preserve Their Lakota Language

“AI should speak every human language”

-Mason Grimshaw, LAICC Co-Creator and Lead Data Science Instructor, to Forbes.

TEDx Talk - Lakota Youth & AI: Bringing AI from Silicon Valley to the Black Hills | Mason Grimshaw |

Mason Grimshaw is one of the co-creators of LAICC, has a Master’s degree in business analytics, works for Ode Partners, a data and design agency for the environment, and is also a dad. Grimshaw addresses data inclusion as well as data sovereignty in a Forbes article. He emphasizes the importance of bringing Native perspective into AI, data, and coding.

Grimshaw mentions that AI masters English, but has problems with other world languages. AI and machine learning (ML) can have data model bias as companies and engineering teams in the past have often interacted with Tribes and Native communities in non-respectful and non-reciprocal ways. Native peoples in tech spaces are often overlooked and undervalued.

Because of the underrepresentation of Native people, it’s important for Native voices to be heard in growing technology and to take power over their own narrative. LAICC is helping change model bias by centering Indigenous perspectives and equipping the future generation with fundamental and life-changing tools.

“We’ve built a community that supports each other.

We are confident that our students are going to be leaders and experts in AI/ML, and within their communities, as they continue to wrestle with the questions around data sovereignty and local applications of AI/ML… They’re all learning … an understanding of the power of these methods, and the value of their community’s data.”
 
Kevin Klingbeil
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