Lara Draper (General Manager – Adults and Seniors, Deaf Aotearoa) and Peter-Clinton Isaac Foaese (President, Asia South Pacific Association for Basic and Adult Education)
As the session moved into the panel kōrero, Robbie invited panellists to offer three words each that captured their experience of the conference. These would later be fed back into AI to generate a new visual aimed at demonstrating the bias but also the potential.
Lara opened by offering a compelling insight into the multi-dimensional nature of sign language. “It’s not just about words,” she explained, “but movement, eye contact, facial expression, and space. However, I believe that while AI capturing or translating sign language is indeed much more complex and requires more data compared to linear language, it is still evolving. There are new AI signing avatars being developed but we don’t yet know how accurate they will be in truly capturing the multi-dimensional nature of sign language.”
Lara shared three words that encapsulated her conference experience: connection, communication, and community. She spoke of the Deaf community’s strong cultural identity and the importance of visual thinking over linear language. Her question was how these will be interpreted and exist in an AI world. And she agreed that adaptive intelligence would be essential in bringing this together in a meaningful way.
She agreed that adaptive intelligence—our ability to integrate cultural, emotional, and technological understandings—would be crucial in navigating this future. Lara called for collective action, stressing the need for the Deaf community to come together to shape their own response to AI: “We must be involved in defining how our community is represented, engaged, and empowered in this space.”
Peter offered a different but equally thoughtful lens. His three phrases were Metacognitive laziness, footprints, and love letter. These came from sessions he had attended during the conference. He wanted to point to how AI has no soul and requires the human heart to be an effective tool for humanity.
“Metacognitive laziness,” he explained, refers to the ease with which we accept online information at face value, without questioning its source, motive, or manipulation. “AI can reinforce that laziness if we’re not vigilant.”
“Footprints” served as a reminder of our environmental and ethical impact—how our choices, including those around technology, leave marks on the world. And finally, his poetic use of “love letter” referenced the many speakers who described their work as expressions of love for whānau and community. He noted that, in the right hands, AI could also become a kind of digital love letter—a tool for honouring stories, legacies, and futures.
Peter concluded with a powerful reminder: “We are all ancestors in the making. We have a responsibility to shape the society we want to leave behind.”