“Digital Colonialism”: How AI Companies Follow the Empire’s Playbook

In the eyes of large AI companies like OpenAI, the data on the Internet is extremely valuable. They scrape photos, videos, books, blog posts, albums, paintings, photos, and more to train their products like ChatGPT – usually without compensation or permission from the creators.

In fact, OpenAI and Google argue that a part of American copyright law known as the “fair use doctrine” legitimizes this data theft. Ironically, OpenAI has also accused other AI giants of scraping “their” data intellectual property.

First Nations communities around the world view these scenes with knowing familiarity. Long before the advent of AI, people, the land and their knowledge were treated in a similar way – exploited by colonial powers for their own gain.

What is happening with AI is a kind of “digital colonialism” in which powerful (mostly Western) tech giants use algorithms, data and digital technologies to exert power…