It’s not every day your name is mentioned alongside tech industry leaders like Meta CEO Mark Zukerberg, but Te Hiku Media CEO Peter-Lucas Jones has done just that when he made Time Magazine’s 2024 TIME100 AI list.
Being included on the list – which highlights 100 individuals advancingmajor conversations about how artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping the world - is a humbling experience for Jones, but one that’s well deserved for him and his team at Te Hiku Media, in Kaitāia.
Jones said it was an honour to make the list, which was a big accolade for the team at Te Hiku Media and showed that when it came to problems, a local solution was best, using local experiences and knowledge.
The list features leaders, policymakers, artists, and entrepreneurs across a variety of fields and from countries around the world. Others on the list include Zukerberg; Sundar Pichai CEO of Google and Alphabet; Satya Nadella. CEO, Microsoft; Sam Altman, CEO, OpenAI and Rohit Prasad, SVP and head scientist of Artificial General Intelligence, Amazon.
Time said Jones and Te Hiku Media’s AI work was outperforming the world’s leading tech companies.
The Te Hiku Media team recognised by Time Magazine for their outstanding artificial intelligence work transcribing te reo Māori.
“Thousands of indigenous languages across the world are in danger of extinction, as elders who preserved them die out and dominant languages like English extend their grip. Some indigenous technologists believe that AI has a role to play in the preservation process,” Time said in the article.
“In New Zealand, the team at Te Hiku Media built their own automatic speech recognition (ASR) model for the indigenous te reo language, building on 30 years’ worth of archival footage and solicited audio clips from community members. Their speech-to-text model now transcribes te reo with 92% accuracy, outperforming similar attempts by major international tech companies.”
Jones is adamant that this technology is owned by and directly benefits his own Māori community, which has long been marginalised and oppressed.
“In the digital world, data is like land,” he said. “If we do not have control, governance, and ongoing guardianship of our data as indigenous people, we will be landless in the digital world, too.”
This year, Te Hiku is working with Radio New Zealand to provide better te reo Māori transcripts; the New Zealand Qualifications Authority for language exams; and a Hawaiian translation organisation, to see how the collaborations within the larger Polynesian language group might benefit everyone involved.
Jones hopes that Te Hiku’s efforts go far beyond sheer language acquisition. “If we can enhance the way that someone respects another language, we too may be able to shape the way they consider other people,” he said.
“This is about Mana motuhake: being in control of one’s destiny, and growing an economic future for your people when that has largely been diminished through the process of colonisation.”
Te Hiku Media CEO Peter-Lucas Jones said being recognised by Time Magazine for it’s AI te reo transcription project is a huge honour for Kaitāia, Te Hiku, and its community.
Jones said to be included alongside such tech heavyweights was a huge honour, but also proved that you do not have to be big to be better, with local knowledge and experiences fuelling the organisation’s kaupapa.
He said being based in Kaitāia – population less than 7000 – was no impediment to being a world leader and Te Hiku Media was determined to do all it could to keep the language alive and make it thrive.
Jones said as well as being a honour for his team, it was also a chance for him to reflect on the mentors who had such a big influence on him.
“This is putting Te Hiku on the world map. To have just an 8% error rate outperforms all the big international tech companies, and it shows that if you want to do something, kept as local as possible.”
“This is not just a celebration of Te Hiku Media and our town, but our whole community and the support we have been afforded by our community to do our work,” Jones, who is also a Northland Regional Councillor in the Te Raki Māori constituency, said.
