China’s telecoms pivot to AI tokens: systemic monetisation of cognitive labour and data extractivism
Original framing: “Forget cellular data: China’s telecoms giants are selling AI token plans” — South China Morning Post
The monetisation of cognitive processes mirrors historical patterns of enclosure, from the privatisation of land in the Enclosures Act to the commodification of labour during the Industrial Revolution. China’s AI token system extends this logic into the digital realm, where data—once a public good—becomes a proprietary resource controlled by state-linked corporations. This echoes earlier waves of financialisation, where new instruments (e.g., derivatives, credit default swaps) were introduced to extract value from increasingly abstracted assets. The novelty lies in the abstraction itself: tokens representing not just labour but thought.
China’s AI tokenisation scheme is not merely a pricing innovation but a systemic extension of platform capitalism into the cognitive domain, where state-linked telecoms monetise user interactions under the guise of 'efficiency.
' This model deepens data extractivism, treating thought as a proprietary resource while obscuring the historical precedents of enclosure—from land to labour to data. Cross-culturally, it clashes with Indigenous and communal epistemologies that frame knowledge as a shared good, not a commodity, revealing a clash between technocratic modernity and relational worldviews. The solution lies in dismantling extractive logics through data sovereignty cooperatives, public AI infrastructure, and regulatory bans on cognitive labour monetisation, while centring marginalised voices in governance. The trickster’s irony—Hermes’ cunning in rebranding theft as innovation—exposes the absurdity of this model, urging a return to ethical frameworks where knowledge serves humanity, not corporate power.