A new research program led by Concordia is Indigenizing artificial intelligence

The international, multi-institutional Abundant Intelligences initiative creates an alternative, ethical way of including Indigenous communities in AI innovation

Concordia University

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Jason Edward Lewis: “The Abundant Intelligences research program is about deconstructing the scarcity mindset and making room for many kinds of intelligence and ways we might think about it.”

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Credit: Concordia University

A new initiative steered by Concordia researchers is challenging the conversation around the direction of artificial intelligence (AI). It charges that the current trajectory is inherently biased against non-Western modes of thinking about intelligence — especially those originating from Indigenous cultures.

As a way of decolonising the future of AI, they have created the Abundant Intelligences research program: an international, multi-institutional and interdisciplinary program that seeks to rethink how we conceive of AI. The driving concept behind it is the incorporation of Indigenous knowledge systems to create an inclusive, robust concept of intelligence and intelligent action, and how that can be embedded into existing and future technologies.

The full concept is described in a recent paper for the journal AI & Society.

“Artificial intelligence has inherited conceptual and intellectual ideas from past formulations of intelligence that took on certain colonial pathways to establish itself, such as emphasizing a kind of industrial or production focus,” says Ceyda Yolgörmez, a postdoctoral fellow with Abundant Intelligences and one of the paper’s authors.

They write that this scarcity mindset contributed to resource exploitation and extraction that has extended a legacy of Indigenous erasure that influences discussion around AI to this day, adds lead author Jason Edward Lewis. The professor in the Department of Design and Computation Arts is also the University Research Chair in Computational Media and the Indigenous Future Imaginary.

“The Abundant Intelligences research program is about deconstructing the scarcity mindset and making room for many kinds of intelligence and ways we might think about it.”

The researchers believe this alternative approach can create an AI that is oriented toward human thriving, that preserves and supports Indigenous languages, addresses pressing environmental and sustainability issues, re-imagines public health solutions and more.

Relying on local intelligence

The community-based research program is directed from Concordia in Montreal but much of the local work will be done by individual research clusters (called pods) across Canada, in the United States and in New Zealand.

The pods will be anchored to Indigenous-centred research and media labs at Western University in Ontario, the University of Lethbridge in Alberta, the University of Hawai’i—West Oahu, Bard College in New York and Massey University in New Zealand.

They bring together Indigenous knowledge-holders, cultural practitioners, language keepers, educational institutions and community organizations with research scientists, engineers, artists and social scientists to develop new computational practices fitted to an Indigenous-centred perspective.

The researchers are also partnering with AI professionals and industry researchers, believing that the program will open new avenues of research and propose new research questions for mainstream AI research.

 “For example, how do you build a rigorous system out of a small amount of resource data like different Indigenous languages?” asks Yolgörmez.  “How do you make multi-agent systems that are robust, recognize and support non-human actors and integrate different sorts of activities within the body of a single system?”

Lewis asserts that their approach is both complementary and alternative to mainstream AI research, particularly regarding data sets like Indigenous languages that are much smaller than the ones currently being used by industry leaders.

“There is a commitment to working with data from Indigenous communities in an ethical way, compared to simply scraping the internet,” he says. “This yields miniscule amounts of data compared to what the larger companies are working with, but it presents the potential to innovate different approaches when working with small languages. That can be useful to researchers who want to take a different approach than the mainstream.

“This is one of the strengths of the decolonial approach: it’s one way to get out of this tunnel vision belief that there is only one way of doing things.”

Hēmi Whaanga, professor at Massey University in New Zealand, also contributed to the paper.

Read the cited paper: “Abundant intelligences: placing AI within Indigenous knowledge frameworks.”

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Journal

AI & Society

DOI

10.1007/s00146-024-02099-4 

Method of Research

News article

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Abundant intelligences: placing AI within Indigenous knowledge frameworks

Is eating more red meat bad for your brain?

Processed red meat linked to increased risk of dementia

American Academy of Neurology

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MINNEAPOLIS — People who eat more red meat, especially processed red meat like bacon, sausage and bologna, are more likely to have a higher risk of cognitive decline and dementia when compared to those who eat very little red meat, according to a study published in the January 15, 2025, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

“Red meat is high in saturated fat and has been shown in previous studies to increase the risk of type 2 diabetes and heart disease, which are both linked to reduced brain health,” said study author Dong Wang, MD, ScD, of Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. “Our study found processed red meat may increase the risk of cognitive decline and dementia, but the good news is that it also found that replacing it with healthier alternatives, like nuts, fish and poultry, may reduce a person’s risk.”

To examine the risk of dementia, researchers included a group of 133,771 people with an average age of 49 who did not have dementia at the start of the study. They were followed up to 43 years. Of this group, 11,173 people developed dementia.

Participants completed a food diary every two to four years, listing what they ate and how often.

Researchers defined processed red meat as bacon, hot dogs, sausages, salami, bologna and other processed meat products. They defined unprocessed red meat as beef, pork, lamb and hamburger. A serving of red meat is three ounces, about the size of a deck of cards.

Researchers calculated how much red meat participants ate on average per day.

For processed red meat, they divided participants into three groups. The low group ate an average of fewer than 0.10 servings per day; the medium group ate between 0.10 and 0.24 servings per day; and the high group, 0.25 or more servings per day.

After adjusting for factors such as age, sex and other risk factors for cognitive decline, researchers found that participants in the high group had a 13% higher risk of developing dementia compared to those in the low group.

For unprocessed red meat, researchers compared people who ate an average of less than one half serving per day to people who ate one or more servings per day and did not find a difference in dementia risk.

To measure subjective cognitive decline, researchers looked at a different group of 43,966 participants with an average age of 78. Subjective cognitive decline is when a person reports memory and thinking problems before any decline is large enough to show up on standard tests.

The subjective cognitive decline group took surveys rating their own memory and thinking skills twice during the study.

After adjusting for factors such as age, sex and other risk factors for cognitive decline, researchers found that participants who ate an average of 0.25 servings or more per day of processed red meat had a 14% higher risk of subjective cognitive decline compared to those who ate an average of fewer than 0.10 servings per day.

They also found people who ate one or more servings of unprocessed red meat per day had a 16% higher risk of subjective cognitive decline compared to people who ate less than a half serving per day.

To measure objective cognitive function, researchers looked at a different group of 17,458 female participants with an average age of 74. Objective cognitive function is how well your brain works to remember, think and solve problems.

This group took memory and thinking tests four times during the study.

After adjusting for factors such as age, sex and other risk factors for cognitive decline, researchers found that eating higher processed red meat was associated with faster brain aging in global cognition with 1.61 years with each additional serving per day and in verbal memory with 1.69 years with each additional serving per day.

Finally, researchers found that replacing one serving per day of processed red meat with one serving per day of nuts and legumes was associated with a 19% lower risk of dementia and 1.37 fewer years of cognitive aging. Making the same substitution for fish was associated with a 28% lower risk of dementia and replacing with chicken was associated with a 16% lower risk of dementia.

“Reducing how much red meat a person eats and replacing it with other protein sources and plant-based options could be included in dietary guidelines to promote cognitive health,” said Wang. “More research is needed to assess our findings in more diverse groups.”

A limitation of the study was that it primarily looked at white health care professionals, so the results might not be the same for other race, ethnic and non-binary sex and gender populations.

The study was supported by the National Institutes of Health.

Discover more about dementia at BrainandLife.org, from the American Academy of Neurology. This resource also offers a magazine, podcast, and books that connect patients, caregivers and anyone interested in brain health with the most trusted information, straight from the world’s leading experts in brain health. Follow Brain & Life® on Facebook, X, and Instagram.

The American Academy of Neurology is the leading voice in brain health. As the world’s largest association of neurologists and neuroscience professionals with more than 40,000 members, the AAN provides access to the latest news, science and research affecting neurology for patients, caregivers, physicians and professionals alike. The AAN’s mission is to enhance member career fulfillment and promote brain health for all. A neurologist is a doctor who specializes in the diagnosis, care and treatment of brain, spinal cord and nervous system diseases such as Alzheimer's disease, stroke, concussion, epilepsy, Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis, headache and migraine.

Explore the latest in neurological disease and brain health, from the minds at the AAN at AAN.com or find us on Facebook, X, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube.

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Journal

Neurology

Red meat consumption increases risk of dementia and cognitive decline

Mass General Brigham researchers found that diets high in processed meats, including bacon, hot dogs and sausage, were associated with a 13 percent higher risk of dementia in participants followed for up to 43 years

Mass General Brigham

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Red meat consumption is an established risk factor for chronic conditions, including cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes. A new study by investigators from Mass General Brigham, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard found that eating greater quantities of red meat, especially in processed forms, increased risk for dementia, too. Results, published online on January 15, 2025, in Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology, highlight that replacing processed red meat with protein sources like nuts and legumes or fish may decrease dementia risk by approximately 20 percent.

“Dietary guidelines tend to focus on reducing risks of chronic conditions like heart disease and diabetes, while cognitive health is less frequently discussed, despite being linked to these diseases,” said corresponding author Daniel Wang, MD, ScD, of the Channing Division of Network Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a founding member of the Mass General Brigham healthcare system. Wang is also an associate member at the Broad Institute and an assistant professor in the Department of Nutrition at Harvard Chan School. “We hope our results encourage greater consideration of the connection between diet and brain health.”

As the U.S. population ages, dementia represents a growing challenge for patients and families. Among 133,771 individuals included in this study with an average age of 49 years at baseline, 11,173 were diagnosed with dementia up to 43 years later. Data were drawn from the Nurses’ Health Study (NHS) and Health Professionals Follow-Up Study (HPFS), which prospectively study thousands of participants’ health and lifestyles, which may influence risk of chronic diseases like dementia. The studies include decades of detailed health information, including participants’ typical diets, which they update every 2 to 4 years.

A typical serving of red meat is 3 ounces — approximately the size of a bar of soap. Those eating a daily average of one-quarter or more of a serving of processed red meats (roughly two slices of bacon, one and half slices of bologna, or a hot dog), compared to those consuming a minimal amount, (less than one-tenth a serving each day) had a 13 percent higher risk of developing dementia, adjusting for numerous clinical, demographic and lifestyle factors such as socioeconomic status and family history of dementia.

The researchers measured objective cognitive function using standard cognitive assessments. They found that this measure was also worse among those with greater processed meat consumption, with cognitive aging accelerated by approximately 1.6 years per average daily serving.

The researchers also examined self-reported subjective cognitive decline (SCD), which may precede markers of cognitive decline on standard evaluations. A greater risk of SCD was associated with consuming either processed or unprocessed meats (like beef, pork and hamburger). SCD risk increased by 14 percent for those eating one-quarter or more servings of processed meat daily compared to the minimal-consumption group, and by 16 percent for those eating one or more daily servings of unprocessed meat compared to those eating less than half a serving.

The researchers are continuing to explore factors linking red meat with dementia risk, especially those involving the gut microbiome. Trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO), a product of the bacteria-mediated breakdown of meat, may increase cognitive dysfunction due to its effects on the aggregation of amyloid and tau, proteins involved in Alzheimer’s disease, but research is limited. The saturated fat and salt content of red meat may also impair brain cells’ health.

“Large, long-term cohort studies are essential for investigating conditions like dementia, which can develop over decades,” Wang said. “We are continuing to piece together this story to understand the mechanisms causing dementia and cognitive decline.”

Authorship: In addition to Wang, Mass General Brigham authors include first author Yuhan Li, Yuxi Liu, Danyue Dong, Jae Hee Kang, Molin Wang, Heather Eliassen, Walter C. Willett, and Meir J. Stampfer. Additional authors include Yanping Li and Xiao Gu.

Disclosures: None.

Funding: This study was supported by the National Institutes of Health (R01AG077489, RF1AG083764, R00DK119412, R01NR019992, and P30DK046200).

Paper cited: Li Y et al. “Long-Term Intake of Red Meat in Relation to Risk of Dementia and Cognitive Function in US Adults ”Neurology DOI: 10.1212/WNL.0000000000210286

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About Mass General Brigham

Mass General Brigham is an integrated academic health care system, uniting great minds to solve the hardest problems in medicine for our communities and the world. Mass General Brigham connects a full continuum of care across a system of academic medical centers, community and specialty hospitals, a health insurance plan, physician networks, community health centers, home care, and long-term care services. Mass General Brigham is a nonprofit organization committed to patient care, research, teaching, and service to the community. In addition, Mass General Brigham is one of the nation’s leading biomedical research organizations with several Harvard Medical School teaching hospitals. For more information, please visit massgeneralbrigham.org.

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Journal

Neurology

DOI

10.1212/WNL.0000000000210286 

Method of Research

Observational study

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Long-Term Intake of Red Meat in Relation to Risk of Dementia and Cognitive Function in US Adults

Article Publication Date

15-Jan-2025

Researchers from Pennington Biomedical serve on global commission on clinical obesity that goes beyond BMI in defining obesity as a disease

Pennington Biomedical Research Center

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Three researchers from Pennington Biomedical serve on the 56-member commission, Global launch with Pennington Biomedical representing North America.

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Credit: Madison Page, PBRC

Three researchers from Pennington Biomedical Research Center served on the Lancet Commission on Clinical Obesity, a global group that generated a new approach to diagnosing clinical obesity. The diagnosis is based on evaluations in addition to body mass index, or BMI, such as measures of excess body fat and objective signs and symptoms of ill health at the individual level.

“I’m very proud this is taking place at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in my hometown of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Pennington has been at the forefront of cutting-edge biomedical research, which of course saves lives and improves public health around the world,” U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy said. “The Lancet Commission’s crucial work will help immensely – it will help us to better understand obesity and that will, in turn, inform policy making in Washington, D.C.”

The Lancet Commission on Clinical Obesity was made up of 56 individuals from around the world, including Dr. John Kirwan, Executive Director and George A. Bray, Jr. Endowed Super Chair in Nutrition; Dr. Eric Ravussin, LSU Boyd Professor and Douglas L. Gordon Chair in Diabetes and Metabolism; and Dr. Philip Schauer, Director of the Metamor Institute and United Companies Life Insurance Co./Mary Kay and Terrell Brown Chair.

“We are honored and excited to be part of this global consensus – defining and diagnosing clinical obesity,” Dr. Kiwan said. “Pennington Biomedical has been a leader in obesity research for decades now. We’ve been involved in the development of most of the current obesity behavioral and treatment programs, and we continue to research new approaches. We have been part of all the drugs that have been developed and are currently being used to treat obesity, and lastly, we have been pioneers in the bariatric surgery space in finding new ways to treat patients who have extreme obesity.”

By providing a medically coherent framework for obesity diagnosis, the Commission aimed to settle the ongoing dispute around the idea of obesity as a disease, which has been at the center of one of the most controversial and polarizing debates in modern medicine.

“We now have a disease, which is called clinical obesity, and it should be taken seriously. It should be managed,” Dr. Ravussin said. “Finally, we have efficacious and safe pharmacological approaches to obesity, which has not been the case in the history of the treatment of obesity. I think that it was important to have new definitions, as well as new diagnoses, to make it easier for clinicians to treat people with obesity.”

The Commission provides a new model for disease diagnosis in obesity based on objective measures of illness at the individual level:

• Clinical obesity is defined as a condition of obesity associated with objective signs and/or symptoms of reduced organ function, or significantly reduced ability to conduct standard day-to-day activities, such as bathing, dressing, eating and continence, directly due to excess body fat. People with clinical obesity should be considered as having an ongoing chronic disease and receive appropriate management and treatments.
• Pre-Clinical obesity is a condition of obesity with normal organ function. People living with pre-clinical obesity therefore do not have ongoing illness, although they have a variable but generally increased risk of developing clinical obesity and several other non-communicable diseases in the future, including type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, certain types of cancer and mental illness, among others. As such, they should be supported to reduce the risk of potential disease.

The Commission’s reframing of obesity is designed to ensure that all people living with obesity receive appropriate health advice and evidence-based care when needed, with different strategies for clinical obesity and pre-clinical obesity.

“We have all these great tools now,” Dr. Schauer said. “We have this much more precise, accurate, clinically relevant diagnosis, so now, nothing should hold us back from an international perspective, to really hone in on this disease – obesity – and provide those who need it the most – those with clinical obesity – provide them with the tools to improve their lives, and for many of them to extend their lives”

The proposal, endorsed by more than 75 medical organizations around the world and published in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology, is designed to address limitations in the traditional definition and diagnosis of obesity that hinder clinical practice and healthcare policies, resulting in individuals with obesity not receiving the care they need.

“I think it's an honor, out of 56 commissioners, to have three coming from Pennington Biomedical, which is recognition that this Center is at the forefront when it comes to obesity diagnosis, as well as obesity treatment,” Dr. Ravussin said.

Dr. Schauer said, “Pennington Biomedical was the most represented of all the institutions on the globe, and we're also very pleased to be one of the sites chosen to launch the information released by the Commission.”

In addition to the three commissioners, Pennington Biomedical’s Dr. Steven Heymsfield, Professor of Metabolism & Body Composition, consulted with the commission on the latest tools and technologies for measuring body composition. Dr. Heymsfield is a world leader in body composition assessment, metabolism and a physician scientist, GLP-1 agonists, which are used to treat type 2 diabetes and can help with weight loss.

“Dr. Heymsfield has been a pioneer in the development of tools like DEXA, and he is a leading investigator in the discovery of these 3D optical imaging systems, which allow you to assess body composition using your cell phone,” Dr. Kirwan said. “This is a very convenient tool, widely available through software download to physicians and practitioners, and holds the potential of being a widely used tools for diagnosing clinical obesity.”

For more information on the Lancet Commission on Clinical Obesity, please visit https://www.pbrc.edu/news/media/2025/lancetcommission.aspx.

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Journal

The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology

DOI

10.1016/S2213-8587(24)00316-4 

Article Title

Definition and diagnostic criteria of clinical obesity

Article Publication Date

14-Jan-2025

 

Diversified cropping systems boost nitrogen supply but not soil carbon, study finds

Iowa State University

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Oats growing near plots of corn at Iowa State University's Marsden Farm, where researchers have studied long-term rotations of crops since 2001.

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Credit: David Sunberg/Iowa State University

AMES, Iowa – Longer, more diverse rotations of crops fertilized with livestock manure have many environmental benefits, but carbon sequestration isn’t one of them, according to a new study led by Iowa State University researchers.

The findings, published this month in Nature Sustainability, counter long-standing assumptions and could have implications for various carbon-market initiatives designed to help mitigate climate change, said Wenjuan Huang, assistant professor of ecology, evolution and organismal biology.

“In a diversified cropping system, there’s more carbon input. So we have figured there would be more carbon stored in the soil. But actually, carbon levels in the soil didn’t change over 20 years, though these regenerative management practices are still valuable in other ways,” said Huang, one of the study’s lead co-authors.

The study is based on data collected from the ongoing field trial at Iowa State’s Marsden Farm just east of Boone, which since 2001 has compared a traditional two-year corn-soybean rotation to three- and four-year systems that mix in a year or two of alfalfa, clover or oats and replace most of the synthetic nitrogen fertilizer for corn with cattle manure.

A greater variety of roots and the addition of manure increase carbon input in the three- and four-year rotations. But putting more organic matter in the soil also stimulates microbial activity, which boosts decomposition and causes an uptick in carbon dioxide emissions that can counteract the increased carbon input. Samples of both topsoil and cores a little more than 3 feet deep had similar soil organic carbon levels in all three types of test plots, while the soil cores from diversified cropping systems produced more carbon dioxide when incubated in the lab for a little more than a year.

By analyzing stable carbon isotopes in the soil core emissions, researchers found the intensified decay in longer rotations wasn’t just using up the additional carbon inputs. All samples gave off similar levels of carbon dioxide from corn-plant residue, even though corn was grown more frequently in the standard two-year rotation. That shows the amped-up decomposition in diversified cropping systems feeds in part on older organic matter from previous corn plants, Huang said.

The novel carbon-chasing method used in the study, which was funded in part by a grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, could help researchers – and carbon markets – improve their models for predicting carbon change in soil. 

“Isotopes improve our understanding of how long carbon can remain in soil. In a sense, we can ask the soil microbes what they had for dinner,” said study co-author Steven Hall, now an assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who initiated and led the study during his previous position at Iowa State.

Even without sequestering more carbon, diversified cropping systems can have a positive climate impact. Soil organic matter breaking down faster also produces more of the type of nitrogen crops need to thrive, especially corn. Organic nitrogen converted into plant-feeding inorganic nitrogen at a rate about 70% higher in the longer-rotation soil samples, researchers found.

Heightened nitrogen availability in the diversified cropping systems helped manure supplant enough synthetic fertilizer to reduce emissions of nitrous oxide, a potent heat-trapping gas, by an estimated carbon dioxide equivalent of 60-70%. That also could be a relevant factor for carbon markets to consider, Huang said.

“The trade-off between carbon accrual and nitrogen supply is important,” Huang said.

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Journal

Nature Sustainability

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Diversified cropping systems with limited carbon accrual but increased nitrogen supply