A Primer on AI in/from the Majority World is a curated collection of over 160 thematic works that serve as pathways to explore the presence of artificial intelligence and technology in the geographic regions that are home to the majority of the human population. Instead of assuming that knowledge and innovations move out of the so-called centers of Europe and the United States to the rest of the world, thinking from the “majority world” (a term coined by Bangladeshi photographer Shahidul Alam) means tracing emerging forms of knowledge, innovation, and labor in former and still-colonized spaces. “Majority world” defines a community in terms of what it has, rather than what it lacks. The outcome of a deep collaboration between Sareeta Amrute, Ranjit Singh, and Rigoberto Lara Guzmán (and informed by a range of feminists, Indigenous thinkers, anti-caste scholars, and Afro-futurists), this primer is the latest in a collection of research from Data & Society that reframes current understandings of AI and data-centric technology from a majority world perspective.
A PRIMER ON AI IN/FROM THE MAJORITY WORLD—An Empirical Site and a Standpoint