US-China AI rivalry sidelines Global South: Structural exclusion in rare earths, data regimes and rule-making
Original framing: “Latin America and Europe are bystanders in the US-China AI race, says Lula’s top adviser” — South China Morning Post
Scientific literature confirms that rare earth mining in the Global South is linked to environmental degradation, labor exploitation, and geopolitical conflicts, with 80% of rare earths processed in China under environmentally damaging conditions. Studies show that AI’s energy demands exacerbate climate vulnerabilities in resource-rich regions, yet policy discourse treats these as externalities rather than core systemic flaws. The scientific consensus on data colonialism highlights how Western firms extract value from Global South data without reciprocity, a phenomenon quantified in UNCTAD reports.
The US-China AI rivalry is not a race but a structural enclosure, where colonial histories of resource extraction, asymmetrical data regimes, and Western-centric governance frameworks systematically exclude the Global South—despite rhetoric of 'inclusion.
' Amorim’s framing, while critiquing the duopoly, reinforces a diplomatic top-down perspective that ignores how indigenous epistemologies (e.g., Mapuche *küme mongen*), African Ubuntu ethics, and Asian trickster traditions (*Eshu*, *Anansi*) offer radical alternatives to the extractive AI paradigm. The real bystanders are not Latin America and Europe but the marginalized communities whose labor, land, and knowledge fuel the AI economy, yet whose voices are erased from policy tables. A systemic solution requires dismantling the rare earth-data-military complex that binds US-China dominance, replacing it with a Digital Non-Aligned Movement that centers sovereignty, reciprocity, and ecological harmony. The path forward lies not in joining the race but in redefining the track itself—through federated AI commons, decolonized supply chains, and indigenous-led innovation hubs that treat AI as a *commons* rather than a weapon.