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In part two, we travel to Venezuela, where AI data labeling firms are finding cheap and desperate workers and creating a new model of labor exploitation in the midst of a devastating economic crisis. The series also looks at ways to get away from these dynamics. In chapter three, we visit motorcyclists in Indonesia who are learning to resist algorithmic control and fragmentation by building power through the community. In chapter four, we end with New Zealand’s Maori name, Aotearoa, where an Indigenous couple takes back control of their community’s data to revive their language.

Together, the stories reveal how AI has impoverished communities and countries that have had no say in its development – ​​the same communities and countries already impoverished by former colonial empires. They also suggest how artificial intelligence can become so much more – a way for the historically dispossessed to reassert their culture, voice and right to self-determination.

That’s the ultimate goal of this series: to broaden the view of AI’s impact on society to begin to understand how things could be different. It is impossible to talk about”artificial intelligence for everyone” (Google’s rhetoric), “responsible artificial intelligence” (Facebook rhetoric) or “distribute widely[ing]” without honestly acknowledging its benefits (OpenAI’s rhetoric) and facing obstacles in the way.

Now one New generation of scientists champion A “decolonial AI” to return power from the Global North to the Global South, to the people from Silicon Valley. I hope this series can provide a hint and an invitation to what “decolonial AI” might look like, because there is so much more to explore.