Decolonizing Artificial Intelligence: Indigenous Knowledge Systems, Epistemic Pluralism, and the Ethics of Technology

This paper explores the epistemological critique and reimaginings of artificial intelligence (AI) offered by Indigenous scholars, technologists, and artists. Challenging the dominant logics of data extraction, computational efficiency, and universalist rationality. Indigenous epistemologies foreground relationality, land-based intelligence, and spiritual responsibility as foundations for ethical technological practice. Drawing on publicly available documents, digital platforms, and urban academic discourses, particularly from the vantage point of a non-Indigenous researcher based in Delhi, this study examines how Indigenous AI critiques circulate across transnational and urban contexts, and the tensions they provoke when translated into mainstream AI ethics. Methodologically, the paper employs critical discourse analysis and reflexive inquiry, informed by decolonial theory and Indigenous data governance principles. Rather than advocating for mere inclusion, it argues for epistemic pluralism and solidarity, urging a reorientation of AI from extractive to relational ontologies. The study contributes to the broader project of decolonizing technology by highlighting the responsibilities of non-Indigenous scholars in supporting epistemologies that challenge and reframe what AI can and should be.