Page 45 - 04_May-2025

by Omar Mouallem
illustration
Scott Carmicheal
AI TAKES ON ANTI-INDIGENOUS RACISM
wâsikan kisewâtisiwin, an AI app designed to correct anti-Indige-
nous bias in writing, raises many technological and ethical questions — but
the first one Shani Gwin usually answers is, “How do you pronounce it?”
“Wuh-see-gahn key-su-wat-su-win,” she says.
I repeat it back in one smooth utterance, earning a figurative gold star
from Gwin. “I’m practically a native speaker,” I quip — then instantly
regret the unintended double entendre.
What was, in any other context, cheekiness, could rightfully be interpreted
as flippant by Gwin, a First Nations and Métis communications professional
accustomed to casual racism — the very problem that inspired the app
years before AI technology could even begin to tackle it. In 2020, pipeline
protests on Wet’suwet’en territory in Northern British Columbia turned
many Canadians hostile toward their Indigenous neighbours. The deluge of
heavily biased reporting and commentary gnawed at Gwin and her emp-
loyees at pipikwan pêhtâkwan, Edmonton’s largest Indigenous-owned and
majority-staffed PR agency — who found themselves wrestling between cor-
recting the bias or ignoring it, either option saddled with mental burden.
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