Thread by Karen Hao

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Two years ago I discovered scholarship arguing that AI is creating a new colonial world order. The idea haunted me & pushed me to investigate. Today I begin to release my findings: a culmination of reporting across five continents. Here’s my introduction. www.technologyreview.com/2022/04/19/1049592/artificial-intelligence-colonialism/
What does it mean that AI is recreating colonialism? Let me use Barcelona and Antoni Gaudí, mastermind of the Sagrada Familia, to explain.
Barcelona is one of the birthplaces of European colonialism. It’s where Christopher Columbus returned after his first voyage to the Americas, kicking off centuries of colonial expansion and exploitation.
As such, the city became one of great benefactors of this new world order. Today tourists from around the world come to admire its famed architectural style, known as Catalan modernism, which counts Gaudí among its most prominent practitioners.
The Catalan modernism movement literally came about in part because Spanish families, rich from the wealth extracted from their colonial businesses, needed to do something with their money. So they used it to build lavish mansions, many of which you can still visit today.
On the other end of this wealth and power, Spanish colonies were drained of their resources. Puerto Rico still suffers from food insecurity because its fertile land was locked up for so long producing cash crops like sugar for the Spanish crown instead of sustenance for locals.
Global AI development today echoes this phenomenon. The technology is successfully enriching a powerful few at the great expense of marginalized communities—the very same communities that have been impoverished and dispossessed before.
Why does this matter? Because if we want AI to actually benefit everyone, as every tech giant says, we need to confront these egregious power gaps head on. As much as this series may seem pessimistic, it comes from a deep sense of optimism that we can absolutely do better.
Now instead of simply telling you these parallels exist, I want to show you. Let’s begin.

Part I: South Africa.

Part II: Venezuela.


Part III: Indonesia.


Part IV: Aotearoa (New Zealand).


And with that, thank you thank you thank you to the people who made this dream project possible. @KSJatMIT for giving me the funding to go on leave and thus the mental space to complete it. @pulitzercenter for giving me the funding to travel and pay my amazing collaborators.
Of course, my incredible collaborators @Heidi_Swart, @andreapaolahg_, and @nfreischlad for being in the trenches with me and keeping me sane while trying to pull together what seemed like so many disparate threads.
My long-time editor @niallfirth who was first to believe in this project and read thousands upon thousands of words to help me pick the best ones. @mat who instantly understood what I was trying to say and helped me focus my message.
Thank you to @lowenthalista for her copy-editing magic and @mahohnoes for his fastidious fact checks. @sparrow47 for the stunning art direction; my photographers Madelene Cronje, Joana Toro, and Agoes Rudianto. And oh my god have you seen these illustrations from @edelstudio?
Thank you also to all of my sources for generously sharing their expertise and their stories, especially the ones who risked so much to come forward.
And last but not least, thank you thank you to all of you for reading and supporting this series. ❤️

I'll be putting together a list of resources at some point for those of you who would like to dive more into AI colonialism. Stay tuned.
You can now view all of the stories, including the introduction, in this series here. www.technologyreview.com/supertopic/ai-colonialism-supertopic/
A coda.

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