For an ethnography of power in artificial intelligence, surveillance capitalism and digital colonialism

Abstract

The aim of this article is to employ concepts derived from various theoretical traditions to emphasize the inextricable interrelation between the ideas surrounding artificial intelligence and its tangible effects on the material construction and social organization of the contemporary world. Drawing from Eric Wolf's ethnography of culture and power, we highlight what would be structural power and organizational power in the context of surveillance capitalism. We delve deeper into discussions about power in North-South relations based on references to what some authors call the decolonial turn in studies on the contemporary digitalization of the world. We propose an ethnography that observes the power asymmetries between North and South, manifested both in technological dominance and in historical contexts of domination. The proposed ethnography should consider these inequalities, observing how technologies and practices from the North influence and are adopted in the South, and how elites from the South, aligned with the North, mediate and benefit from these relations.