Artificial Intelligence in Reclaiming and Preserving Hausa Language and Cultural Knowledge: An Academic Overview

This study discussed an intersection of artificial intelligence (AI) and indigenous knowledge with reference to the Hausa language, especially how AI is mediating, influencing, and potentially disrupting culturally ingrained epistemologies in the academic context. While on one hand, AI is efficient in translation, text generation, and data processing, its effectiveness, on the other hand, depends on the availability of highly-resourced language datasets, which marginalise low-resource languages, distorting meaning and flattening epistemic and interpretative depth. Using a qualitative research methodology, this conceptual analysis examines AI-produced Hausa texts and draws on previous studies to identify problems in linguistic representation. Observations from 15 respondents (researchers and students) reveal a series of problems in the context of linguistic representation, tonal accuracy, and culturally-based interpretation. Informed by cultural hermeneutics, it becomes clear that AI is unable to reproduce the contextual, moral, and philosophical richness in Hausa proverbs and written poetry, oral narratives, and the ‘Ajami’ manuscripts. Using the ChatGPT tool to translate some Hausa words and proverbs, the results reveal that indigenous knowledge has been reiterated into Hausa-based AI corpora, with online archiving and humanities-driven partnerships between linguists and AI engineers. The paper, therefore, considers African languages as the epistemic partners, as opposed to marginal datasets, such that the integration of AI would continue to contribute to the cultural and academic authority.