Preventing Generated Futures: Indigenous Resistance to Artificial Intelligence (AI). Alice Tay Lecture 2026

2026 Alice Tay Lecture presented by the Freilich Project for the Study of Bigotry, held at the University House Common Room on Thursday 5th November at 5:45, followed by a reception at 6:45.

This free public lecture is titled Preventing Generated Futures: Indigenous Resistance to Artificial Intelligence (AI) and will be delivered by Dr. Tamika Worrell, a Senior Lecturer in the Centre for Critical Indigenous Studies at Macquarie University.

Attendance at the lecture and reception is free, but bookings are required. Please sign up and advise of dietary and accessibility requirements using the link provided.

In contemporary discourse, the term “artificial intelligence” (AI), is frequently employed as a catch-all descriptor, encompassing a heterogeneous array of technologies that differ markedly in form, function and capability. Often, this is framed as inevitable, a future we must embrace for the sake of progress. But progress for whom? Who gets to decide?

In this session, Dr Tamika Worrell will explore how AI can function as algorithmic settler colonialism, examining growing concerns and risks associated with its use from a Critical Indigenous perspective. Drawing on her research, she will consider how emerging technologies can reinforce existing systems of power while shaping how knowledge is created, shared, and valued. Dr Worrell will also discuss how these dynamics are emerging in higher education and classroom settings, encouraging reflection on current practices and inviting us to consider how we might better support and protect Indigenous knowledge systems and ways of knowing. Ultimately asking the question: what future worlds do we want to live in?

Speaker bio: 

Dr Tamika Worrell is a Senior Lecturer in the Centre for Critical Indigenous Studies at Macquarie University. Her family is from Gamilaroi Country, and she has been raised on Dharug Country, Western Sydney, since birth. Tamika is a leading voice in Artificial Intelligence and Indigenous perspectives, documenting the nature of how AI technologies function as an extension of settler colonial systems.