‘Very harmful’: website uses AI to generate northern Indigenous news ‘correspondents’

“You're educating the public, you're educating your colleagues,” said the interim president of the Indigenous Media Association of Canada.

“There have been a lot of inroads made … trying to create a space where we can finally say these are stories told by us, for us, but also willingly shared with the general public to help correct that false narrative that has been created about us.”

That’s an experience WE NEWS correspondents Kaylee Johns, Warren Lafferty and Leah Qammaniq will never have to face. They’ve been generated using artificial intelligence .

WE NEWS lists profiles for Johns, Lafferty and Qammaniq as “AI correspondents.” Their associated profiles say they are “a member of Yukon First Nation,” “of Dene heritage,” and “an Inuk raised in the North,” respectively.

Benjoe said she was “disturbed” after CBC shared the profiles.

Historically, she said, Indigenous people were excluded from the media.