In part two, we go to Venezuela, where companies labeling AI data find cheap and desperate workers amid a devastating economic crisis, creating a new model of labor exploitation. The series also looks at ways to remove these dynamics. In season three, we visit ride-hailing drivers in Indonesia, who, by building power through the community, are learning to fight algorithmic control and fragmentation. In season four, we end with Aotearoa, New Zealand’s Maori name, where an indigenous couple is taking back control of their community’s data to reinvigorate the community’s language.
Together, the stories reveal how AI is impoverishing communities and countries that have no say in its development — the very communities and nations that have been impoverished by former colonial empires . They also suggest how AI could be more than that — a way for people with no history to reassert their culture, their voice, and the right to determine their own future.
That’s ultimately the point of this series: to broaden your horizons about AI’s impact on society to start figuring out how things could be different. Can’t talk about”AI for everyone“(Google’s rhetoric),”Responsible AI“(Facebook rhetoric), or”widely distributed[ing]“It benefits (OpenAI rhetoric) without honestly admitting it and confronting the obstacles along the way.
Now a new generation of scholars being champion a “non-colonial AI” to give power from the Global North back to the Global South, from Silicon Valley back to the people. My hope is that this series can provide a reminder of what “non-colonial AI” might look like — and an invitation, because there is so much more to discover.
