Pasifika And The AI Opportunity
Unlocking Potential: Why I Think LLMs and AI will Transform The Future of Pasifika.
Buckle up.. this one’s a long one. Or just read it later.
Talofa Reader,
I was listening to a podcast once, and the guest was explaining why there aren't as many "geniuses" and prodigies around now as there were in, say, Mozart's days.
The explanation was that historically, aristocracies often had exclusive access to the best education and intellectual resources. Children of aristocrats were frequently tutored by leading scholars, artists, and thinkers.
I sat on this and thought about my experiences growing up, my environment, my schools, my circle of friends, and my parents' friends. I looked at who was successful and who didn't quite come out on top.
Which led me to the following hypothesis:
The single factor, which paradoxically accounts for both the challenges and successes experienced by Pasifika, in my opinion, can be summed up in one central theme—
Access to knowledge.
The limits to this access came in many forms:
environments that were hostile to learning things that would advance, and not hinder, us; whether that was at home, learning we needed to "play our role", or at school, where we were treated like we were too dumb to understand anything academically.
Teachers who weren't skilled in getting through to Pasifika kids; admittedly, were already hard-up against it, given the teaching industry's a bit shit (pay, class sizes etc), and then the Island kids are coming to school from stressed environments, hungry, wrong uniforms, etc.
If we got to school at all...
It wasn’t usually the best schools.
No offence to the teachers that made it to the schools I went to, but the rich schools got the best teachers, right?
Statistically, your parents either didn't finish school or can't really help you with your English and maths homework, and hiring a tutor is only what kids in the movies did.
So, poor communities, with poor schools, and poor teachers don't lead to a rich, knowledgeable learning outcome1 .
Legacy Thinking
In the Pasifika community, they revere going to university, being a doctor, lawyer, or accountant.
The "status" of these professions is a big drawcard for our Pasifika parents.
I think of Ronnie Chieng's stand-up, where he recalls the same pressure, but from Asian parents, and his explanation for it is that they immigrate to another country, and in one generation, in the new country, they can go from poor labourers to professionals.
Something that's not necessarily available to them in their home country, or maybe not in that time-frame?
But I've sat and thought about what it is about these careers that makes them so impactful on our communities—other than the bragging rights?
More money than freezing works?
Sure.
Less physically taxing on our bodies?
Yes, that too.
These professions require you to be deeply knowledgeable about their subjects.
The difference between an orderly and a doctor, even though they work at the same place, is that the doctor needs to know a lot more about anatomy than the orderly needs to know about hospital beds (no shade on orderlies).
And that's always been, in my opinion, the thing that holds us back.
Sure, the socio-economic and environmental factors make the playing field harder, but if there was ever a shot to take, it would be at advancing knowledge2.
One important point is, when I say "advancing knowledge," I don't mean a direct learn-to-earn relationship where you study for and sit a micro-credential and land a job with it.
There's nothing wrong with that.
I mean change the way you think about the world by changing how you think about knowledge i.e. it’s not an instruction manual to a paycheck.
I remember an IT project manager at a place I was contracting at; he was a very smart guy, a bit of a smart arse if I'm being honest, but he said something quite profound to me when I asked what he'd studied at university.
He said he studied Philosophy and had a Bachelor of Arts (see why I was playing it cool with the BA jokes).
He said his dad had told him that you go to university to learn how to think, not to get a job.
I thought this was brilliant!
Of course, a Palagi dad had the luxury of telling his son that the student loan debt and grad job prospects were all good in exchange for learning how to think (wouldn't get away with that outcome in a Samoan household) because he understood the long-term good that was not going to set his son up for his first job, but for the rest of his life.
That's another form of knowledge—the wisdom from our elders... another topic for another newsletter.
This lack of knowledge and the access to it, for whatever myriad of reasons—schools, quality and skill of teachers, lack of devices, home life education levels, our social groups, etc.—
Whatever it is, we're missing it.
The Cost is More Than Any Dollar Value
It has cost us, and still costs us, opportunities and a better quality of life, and it's going to keep costing us.
Pasifika, second from the bottom in leaving school with an NCEA Level 2 or better:
leaving school and going on to do what?
Definitely not tertiary study…
Ok, but maybe they're onto bigger and better things that aren't school books..
Like work:
Average hourly wage for Pasifika, in the top category i.e. Professionals, was $40.39NZD.
Average hourly wage for Palagi, in the same category i.e. Professionals, is $46.91NZD
I've already covered a lot of this ground in a piece earlier this year called "The Pasifika Problem & The Tech Gambit", but its still a bit of shock looking up the numbers again and seeing the same gap.
My point is, everything has a knock-on effect.
From household income to owning or renting your home, to the effect on inter-generational wealth, to increased burden and pressure as the economy squeezes your low-income damp rental payments that are stretching thinner due to health-related costs...
It's like the butterfly effect, but for poverty.
And it feels like there's always going to be this gap; we're always going to be behind.
I'm getting Pasifika to hustle the tech industry, to come in and get these salaries and skills to play in a league above, without having to delve four years deep into a "professional" career like a doctor or a lawyer.
But it still doesn't feel like it's going to be enough.
Until AI came along.
No Hype. Why AI?
Certain forms of wealth and knowledge impact and change direction.
Wisdom from parents, elders, and community members who have experience.
For example, Mum and Dad, the ex-youth members at church, elders at church who drove taxis and picked you up from the city at 4 am.
Tutors at Uni (the free ones) who helped me with Calculus, they were doing their Masters degrees and tutoring on the side.
My friend Brent, when I went contracting, who is highly sought after and paid contractor, taught me the contracting game, passed on his knowledge, and advised me based on his expertise.
Each of these stories is an example of very specific access to high-quality knowledge that was very specific to my requirements, so it was impactful to me personally but also effective in achieving the end result.
And that’s where I see AI opportunity - for Pasifika.
What Do You See?
I see the potential of AI tools, assistants, and agents as being that for each and every Pasifika situation that has historically been under-resourced, misunderstood, and under served.
Having the knowledge of the world, captured in an LLM, and we've been given powerful prompts and interfaces to bend and mould that to our will, means those of us with the skills and understanding can harness this power for our communities.
An AI "study buddy" who understands a Pasifika kid's unique learning style and challenges, and is able to craft their homework activities in a way that maximises learning, is literally a world-class teacher dedicated 1-on-1 with your child.
AI agents who recruit and onboard new employees at a Pasifika ECE, help understand, generate reports, and assist with ERO reviews, and just make life easier in terms of regulation and compliance duties.
How?
The idea is there, the potential as I see it—
Yes, there are plenty of things to be aware of, and we would do well to remember all those things.
But that said, the opportunity on the table to change the game for Pasifika in terms of access to and implementation of knowledge and learning that hasn't been available to us—since we can't get into those schools, afford the tutors, or just hang out in those networks where your dad's friend is a professor at a uni, etc...
We have our own Jarvis, to teach us, to educate and learn from us, in order to better serve us, and we can build the world we need using the knowledge of the world at our fingertips.
We just need those of us with the tools to learn it, to step up and start building things with it.
Sounds ominous, I know (Avengers Ultron joke goes here)!
But this isn't about tearing anyone else down or conquering other people.
It's really like we're in the desert by ourselves, living in tents, and suddenly we've got futuristic power tools from space that can dig wells in a single shot, or sustainable houses in minutes, and finding water for us.
The transformation happens in us.
We change how we see the opportunity, we change how we move with it.
It's like the fall of Adam; eats the fruit, finally "sees the truth," or now has the whole knowledge.
It's meant to change us, and then we change our world.
I'm going to do something in the AI space.
I don't know exactly what that's going to look like, but I'm going to do it.
I believe in it that much.
I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on the matter.
Feel free to comment below, and maybe we can chop it up in the comments?
Thanks for reading, see you in the next one.
ia manuia,
Ron.
Obviously generalising a lot here.
There's a joke here to be made about BA or Fine Arts students, but we'll be cool.