Safeguarding Heritage in the Age of AI: UNESCO’s Guilherme Canela on Data Commons and Indigenous Languages

As artificial intelligence rapidly transforms how knowledge is created, accessed, and shared, we are faced with a pivotal question: Who has a voice in shaping these systems?

While AI holds immense potential for education, research, and cultural preservation, it also risks deepening digital inequalities. Of the world’s 7,000+ spoken languages, only a small fraction have a meaningful presence online—leaving countless communities, their knowledge systems, and their histories invisible in the digital era.

In this insightful opening address, Guilherme Canela de Souza Godoi, Director of the Division for Digital Inclusion, Policies, and Digital Transformation at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, shares why inclusive data governance is vital to our collective future. And why the New Commons is a pathway toward that end.

Key Highlights from the Discussion:

• Data Rights & Self-Determination: Why data governance for Indigenous communities is not merely a technical issue, but a matter of rights, cultural identity, and self-determination.

• The Data Commons Indigenous Languages Incubator: Insights from our initiative co-partnered with UNESCO, Microsoft and NYU’s GovLab, which drew over 180 applications across 50 countries focusing on language revitalization, speech tech, and translation.

• The Role of Indigenous Women: Honoring Indigenous women as essential custodians and transmitters of traditional knowledge, biodiversity, and community leadership.

• Building “Public Interest AI”: Why AI systems that serve humanity must reflect the diversity of the world’s peoples and common goods from the outset—not just as data sources, but through genuine partnership and leadership.

Watch the full video above to explore how cross-sector collaboration between foundations, researchers, governments, and Indigenous leaders can build a fairer, richer, and more innovative digital ecosystem.