The Ancestral AI chapter invites us to rethink the timeline of AI development — showing how modern data practices could integrate ancestral values like community, reciprocity, and collective memory.

From Polynesian navigation systems to knotted-string devices, the chapter highlights approaches that treat data not as a resource to be extracted, but as a form of heritage to be preserved and enriched over time.

Challenging the idea that progress lies only ahead, Ancestral AI argues for moving beyond short-term metrics of “success” and “innovation” to consider the long-term impact of AI systems across generations.

The Ancestral AI research is part of the Slow AI project by AIxDESIGN.