The boom in AI and data centers is driving Indigenous communities to defend their land, resources, and cultural knowledge from new forms of extraction.

When the United Nations marked the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples last week, it signaled a growing recognition of a new kind of extraction. Artificial intelligence, or AI, systems are being trained on massive troves of online data, much of it collected without the consent of the communities involved. For Indigenous peoples, this new form of extraction has raised questions about who controls their histories, languages, and cultural knowledge and whether the technology will erase or distort them entirely. With this in mind, tribes and nations have been pushing to assert “data sovereignty” — the right to control how information is collected and used — and claim a seat at the table as tech companies and governments set the rules for AI oversight.

Perhaps as a reflection of the AI boom and its implications for Indigenous communities, this year’s theme for the international Indigenous day was “Indigenous Peoples and AI: Defending Rights, Shaping Futures.” At the heart of the commemorative event was the acknowledgement of a stark reality: While information extraction, data center development, and the global critical minerals race have harmed Indigenous communities, emerging AI technologies also offer tools to address some of these challenges. The critical minerals used in batteries for backup power at data centers are often sourced from ecologically sensitive regions in Indigenous territories such as the Atacama Salt Flat in Chile. The centers also consume vast amounts of water and energy, which can strain local aquifers and cause pollution. But even as communities grapple with ecological destruction and changes to their way of life due to the AI boom, some are beginning to recognize the potential it holds for language revitalization and climate forecasting.

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