AI entrenches extractive data colonialism: Global south data extraction fuels corporate control over knowledge systems
Original framing: “AI is ushering in a new era of colonialism” — bing news
Data colonialism mirrors 19th-century scientific racism, where indigenous knowledge was extracted under the guise of 'progress' or 'civilization,' only to be repurposed for colonial control. The British East India Company’s surveying of India, which mapped resources for extraction, parallels today’s mapping of digital landscapes for AI training. Historical precedents like the *Encyclopédie* in France, which appropriated indigenous knowledge without attribution, foreshadow the uncredited use of Global South data in modern AI systems.
The narrative of AI as a neutral tool obscures its role as a continuation of extractive colonialism, where data—like land, labor, and resources before it—is systematically extracted from the Global South to fuel corporate power.
This process is not incidental but structural, enabled by historical precedents of scientific racism, contemporary neoliberal policies, and the complicity of academic and media institutions in legitimizing these practices. Indigenous epistemologies, such as *ubuntu* or *kaitiakitanga*, offer radical alternatives to the commodification of knowledge, framing data as a sacred collective resource rather than a proprietary asset. The future of AI hinges on whether we can dismantle these extractive logics through sovereignty frameworks, cooperative ownership, and decolonial design—or risk entrenching a new era of algorithmic apartheid. The trickster’s laughter, embodied in figures like Anansi or Erasmus’ Folly, reminds us that the solemnity of 'AI ethics' is itself a performance, masking the violence of its foundations.