Ancient apocalypse now: Lessons from pseudoscience in the Pacific in the face of GenAI

Generative AI (GenAI) and misinformation online have the potential to cause harm to Indigenous cultural knowledge advancement and truth-telling endeavours. Indigenous archaeologies in Australia and the Pacific Islands are no strangers to misinformation produced from pseudoarchaeology or fringe narratives; however, the new potential threats posed by GenAI in (re)popularising false histories and the loss of scientific and Indigenous authority are of great concern. Here we examine the current state of information generation using ChatGPT by querying well-known pseudoarchaeology narratives from the Pacific Islands and Australia. We do not wish to conflate GenAI with pseudoarchaeology; rather, our aim is to test and assess whether GenAI can distinguish current archaeological and Indigenous knowledge from fringe narratives. Further, we consider the intersections between GenAI ethics, the complex legacies of archaeological knowledge history and Indigenous cultural and intellectual property (ICIP). These require active attention to advance ethical research practices and combat the dissemination of misinformation.