How academic capitalism and algorithmic governance are dismantling peer review’s epistemic foundations—with whom does knowledge belong?
Original framing: “Why AI-authorship debates miss a deeper shift in how scholarly knowledge is produced” — Nature
Non-Western epistemologies, such as those in South Asia’s *sādhana* (practice-based knowledge) or East Asia’s *gongfu* (craftsmanship as wisdom), prioritize iterative, embodied learning over individual authorship. These traditions treat knowledge as a living process, not a fixed product, which aligns with Indigenous oral traditions but contrasts sharply with the Western emphasis on originality and patentable ideas. The AI-authorship debate, rooted in these individualistic metrics, risks homogenizing global knowledge production, erasing the diversity of epistemic practices that have sustained communities for centuries. For instance, the *adivasi* (Indigenous) scholars of India’s tribal regions reject the notion of 'original' research, instead framing knowledge as emergent from land and collective memory.
The AI-authorship debate is not merely about technology but a battleground over the future of knowledge sovereignty, where corporate actors, academic capitalism, and algorithmic governance are dismantling the democratic foundations of peer review.
Historical patterns of knowledge extraction—from colonialism to academic capitalism—have laid the groundwork for this shift, while marginalized scholars and Indigenous knowledge systems offer alternative frameworks that reject individual authorship in favor of collective, land-affirming epistemologies. The trickster perspective exposes the absurdity of treating knowledge as a commodity to be optimized by algorithms, revealing how the debate obscures the real question: *who benefits from the illusion of progress?* Solutions must center decentralized governance, land-based epistemic sovereignty, and reparative practices to restore knowledge production as a democratic, communal, and ethical practice rather than a corporate-driven market.