Acknowledgements

The editors would like to thank all the contributors of chapters included in this volume for their creativity, generosity and patience both during the AIAI project itself and the writing of the book. They would also like to thank all the other people, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous, who have been involved in the project over time. This includes those who have allowed us to include images that they generated during the first stage of the project (Aymar Ccopacatty, Ayra Ymboré, Kuenan Mayu, Horacio Montes de Oca Ayala, Kadu Tapuya, Loreto Millalén and Wera Moru Tupi-Guarani), the interpreters for the Leeds workshop (Fabiola Conceição, Leticia Laxon Affonso Ferreira and Seren Roff), those involved in the National Botanic Gardens of Ireland exhibition (NBG staff, Kathryn Bower, Avi Biswass, Ming Ho and Ananya Kumar), those involved in the ‘Generative Fictions’ exhibition at the Centro Cultural Gabriela Mistral in Santiago de Chile (the exhibition curators, Wolfgang Bongers and Valentina Montero, and the production team members) and those who were more fleetingly involved at various stages of the project (Alessandra Mello Simões Paiva, Christophe de Bézenac, Diane Nelson, Hangorroy Ymboré, Haynes Collins, Hemerson Pataxó Hãhãhãe, Laryssa Machada, Luz Julieta Altina Tulián, Osvaldo Guineo, Sarah Abel, Sheila Miho Sato, Hedyah Song and Sheilla Souza). Thanks are most especially due to Tom Jackson, previously of the University of Leeds, who first had the idea to explore AI image generation in relation to Indigenous visual culture. And finally, we would like to thank everyone at University of London Press and most especially commissioning editor, Emma Gallon, and editorial assistant, Natalia Fantetti, as well as senior project manager Estelle Lloyd, copyeditor Alan Bellinger, translator Roberto Rodríguez-Saona, indexer Michelle Brumby and the Understanding Languages, Cultures and Societies series editors, for supporting this book project through to publication.

Funding for the AIAI project came from three different University of Leeds sources: the Leeds Arts and Humanities Research Institute, the Enhancing Research Fund and the Digital Creativity and Cultures Hub. Funding for Thydêwá’s projects came from Ibercultura Viva (AIIA) and from the state government of Bahia and the Brazilian Ministry of Culture (Inteligência Ancestral). Funding for the INDIGENIA project and Alexsandro Cosmo de Mesquita’s subsequent Digital Buen Vivir postdoctoral research project came from the ESRC-funded Digital Good Network, University of Sheffield. Funding for the AIAI exhibition at the NBG came from Dublin City University Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences Creative Output Scheme and the NBG itself.

While the use of image-generation tools is the focus of this book, we would like to make clear that we have only made very modest and judicious use of (generative) AI tools in our research process and editing of this book. We have used them for tasks such as producing alt text descriptions of the many images included (although it should be noted that Microsoft Copilot rather unhelpfully said, ‘I can’t describe or infer ethnicity or gender for people in an image, as that’s not allowed’) and for transcription and translation back and forth between English, Spanish and Portuguese (generally using Google Translate and other more specific machine translation tools rather than Copilot or ChatGPT, thus privileging greater control and accuracy over how good a text sounds). They have also been used in one chapter, indicated in the text itself, where a dyslexic author has used ChatGPT to help structure their text as an assistive technology. All materials have been carefully checked by a human eye, and it goes without saying that the editors accept full responsibility for any mistakes.