Artificial intelligence: dependency, coloniality and technological subordination in Brazil

This article analyzes the profound technological asymmetries worldwide and argues that the development of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has exacerbated these asymmetries between technoeconomically rich and poor countries. Next, the article presents an analysis of the discursive practices present in three Brazilian government AI-related documents: The Brazilian Strategy for Artificial Intelligence; The Brazilian Strategy for Digital Transformation, and The Legal Framework for the Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence in Brazil. The analysis focuses on the documents’ discursive core with a view to showing demonstrates the omission and disregard for the technological subordination Brazil is submitted to, increasingly distancing itself from data sovereignty. Finally, the article examines digital colonialism issues and a vision that seeks to encourage Brazil’s so-called international positioning without considering the deep economic, geopolitical, infrastructural, and inventive inequalities across countries.