Technology
Nov. 9, 2026
Ancestral intelligence in the age of AI: What California can learn from India
Drawing on India's efforts to protect traditional knowledge, California should establish a Tribal-led framework for artificial intelligence that safeguards Indigenous knowledge, requires informed consent and ensures Tribes retain control over how their cultural and environmental knowledge is used.
Kiran Kumar Reddy Vadlapally
Software Engineer
Identity and Access Management Integrations
Michigan Technological University
Roberto Escobar
Email: bobby@elaw.business
Roberto "Bobby" Escobar is general counsel, and an environmental and labor and immigration advisor.
California's debate over artificial intelligence should include a question that cannot be answered by better algorithms: Who decides whether Indigenous knowledge becomes data? Tribal knowledge about fire, watersheds, plants and seasonal change can inform environmental stewardship. But incorporating that knowledge into AI without governing its use risks turning a partnership into extraction. The objective should be authority: ensuring that Tribes determine whether, how, and for whose be...
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