04. Towards Ethical AI Through Indigenous Wisdom: A Computational Reading of Thirukkural and Language Systems

As artificial intelligence (AI) systems increasingly shape global decision-making, the issues of algorithmic bias, ethical governance, and cultural inclusivity have emerged as paramount concerns. This paper introduces an innovative framework for ethically aligned AI by merging Thirukkural, a classical Tamil text focused on virtue, justice, and compassion, with computational linguistics and knowledge representation. I present:

1.      A semantic embedding model designed to extract ethical principles from the 1,330 couplets of Thirukkural.

2.      A knowledge graph that connects the teachings of Thirukkural to contemporary AI ethics guidelines (e.g., IEEE 7000, EU AI Act).

3.      A case study addressing bias mitigation in language models through the application of Kural-based fairness constraints.

My findings illustrate that indigenous wisdom can be utilized computationally to inform AI systems, thereby enhancing transparency, equity, and a human-centric design. This research connects ancient moral philosophy with modern machine learning, providing a culturally informed approach to ethical AI.