Technological Self-Determination in the Age of AI: A View From the Caribbean
As artificial intelligence reshapes the global landscape, the Caribbean faces a profound choice: Will we be passive recipients of AI technologies developed elsewhere, or will we seize the opportunity to define our own technological future? This question of technological self-determination is not merely academic; it cuts to the heart of our sovereignty, our cultural identity, and our economic prospects in the 21st century and beyond.
The fight for control over AI and its implications echoes our past battles for political independence, economic sovereignty, and cultural autonomy. Just as our forebears recognized that true independence meant more than a change of flags, we must now recognize that genuine technological self-determination requires more than mere access to AI tools developed by others.
The parallels with our colonial past are stark and demand our attention. The introduction of AI systems into our societies — often designed and controlled by tech giants from the Global North — risks creating new forms of dependency as potent as any commodity-based colonial economy. Our data, the lifeblood of AI systems, could become the new sugar, banana, or bauxite — extracted from our shores to fuel innovations that primarily benefit others.
Our Caribbean Identity
As AI becomes more pervasive, it brings with it the potential to reshape our cultural landscapes in both profound and subtle ways. It touches the very core of our Caribbean identity, as AI systems, trained predominantly on data sets that reflect Western realities and values, risk becoming a new vector for cultural imperialism.
Our unique ways of knowing, our oral traditions, our Creole languages — the very elements that define our Caribbean-ness — may be marginalized or misinterpreted by AI systems not designed with our realities in mind. While not as visible as the physical transformations wrought by colonialism, it may prove just as consequential.
We face the risk of a new form of cultural alienation, where our lived experiences are increasingly mediated by AI systems that do not — and cannot — truly understand the nuances of Caribbean life and thought.
Challenges to Technological Self-Determination
We must confront the bitter truth that the road to technological self-determination is paved with obstacles. And each one is a reflection of the enduring legacy of colonialism that still haunts our Caribbean nations. These challenges are not mere technical hurdles, these are manifestations of a global order that seeks to maintain our periphery status, to keep us consumers rather than creators, subjects rather than authors of our technological destiny.
The most immediate and visceral of these challenges is the crushing weight of resource constraints. Our nations, still reeling from centuries of economic exploitation, find themselves starved of the very lifeblood of AI development — capital.
The coffers that should fund our digital emancipation are drained by debt, a modern incarnation of the extraction that has long defined our relationship with the Global North. This financial strangulation is compounded by the glaring deficiencies in our digital infrastructure. While the tech giants of the North bask in the glow of high-speed connections and vast data centers, many of our people still struggle to access basic broadband. This chasm threatens to relegate us to the role of spectators in the AI revolution.
Even the energy that powers our dreams of technological sovereignty is constrained. The computation demands of AI are voracious, a stark challenge for a region already grappling with high energy costs. And even as we strive to break free from fossil fuels and embrace the abundance of our sun and wind, we find ourselves caught in a cruel irony — the very technologies that could liberate us demand resources we struggle to provide.
Minds in Exodus
Yet, the most insidious challenge we face is not material, but human. The development of AI capabilities demands not just machines, but minds — skilled, innovative, and rooted in the Caribbean experience. Here, we confront the specter of brain drain, a hemorrhage of talent that threatens the very foundation of our technological aspirations. Our brightest minds, nurtured by the sacrifices of our communities, are seduced away by the siren call of Silicon Valley. This exodus is a deprivation of the very individuals who could shape AI in our image, infuse it with our values, our perspectives, our dreams.
This talent flight is both symptom and cause of a deeper malaise — the limitations of our educational systems. Our institutions still bear the scars of colonial designs, and struggle to provide the cutting-edge AI education our youth deserve. We find ourselves caught in a vicious cycle, dependent on foreign expertise to educate our people, and perpetuating a relationship of technological tutelage reminiscent of the dynamics of our colonial past.
Data Colonialism: The New Resource Extraction
The challenge of human capital is inextricably linked to another critical resource — data, the lifeblood of AI systems. Here again, we find ourselves at a crossroads of deficiency and exploitation. Our small populations and limited digital footprints mean we often lack the vast, comprehensive datasets needed to train AI systems reflective of our realities. Yet, where our data does exist, it is all too often siphoned away by foreign entities, a new form of extractivism that treats our digital lives as raw material for AI systems that may never serve our interests.
This data colonialism is perhaps the most pernicious form of technological subjugation we face. Our experiences, our behaviors, our very identities are harvested, processed, and monetized by AI systems designed and controlled by others. We risk becoming digital colonies, our data extracted like the gold and sugar of centuries past, creating value that enriches foreign shores while leaving us dependent on AI systems that do not understand the rhythms of our lives or the yearnings of our hearts.
Caribbean Exclusion in Global AI Policy
As we grapple with these material and human challenges, we must not lose sight of the structures of power that shape the global AI landscape. The regulatory and governance frameworks that will determine the future of AI are being crafted in the boardrooms of Silicon Valley and the corridors of Western governments. Our voices, our concerns, our unique perspectives are marginalized, if not entirely silenced, in these crucial discussions. We find ourselves once again subject to rules we did not write, governing technologies we did not design.
Priced Out of Progress
This exclusion is reinforced by the brutal realities of market dynamics. The global AI industry is a new form of oligarchy, dominated by a handful of tech giants with resources that dwarf those of entire Caribbean nations. These companies, flush with capital and talent, shape the direction of AI development, creating a self-reinforcing cycle of dominance that threatens to relegate us to perpetual technological dependency.
The specter of this dependency looms large over our aspirations for digital self-determination. Without developing our own AI capabilities, we risk becoming mere consumers of technologies designed for other contexts, other needs, other values. The algorithms that increasingly shape our economic opportunities, our access to information, even our social interactions, may be black boxes whose inner workings are opaque to us, whose biases and assumptions may run counter to our interests and cultural norms.
This technological subjugation carries with it profound ethical and societal implications. AI systems, trained on data that does not reflect our diversity, our history, our ways of being, risk perpetuating and amplifying existing inequalities. The automation promised by AI threatens to displace workers in key industries, potentially deepening economic disparities and social unrest. Even more insidiously, the uncritical adoption of AI in areas like criminal justice or social services risks embedding alien values and biases into the very systems meant to serve and protect our people.
Yet, let us not mistake these challenges for insurmountable barriers. They are, instead, a clarion call for action, a demand for us to seize control of our technological destiny. The path to digital liberation will not be easy, but it is necessary. We must recognize these obstacles not as proof of our inadequacy, but as evidence of the urgent need for a radical reimagining of our relationship with technology.
In confronting these challenges, we must remember that our struggle for technological sovereignty is inseparable from our broader fight for true independence and self-realization.
AI is the new front of our liberation struggle.
A Vision for Caribbean Technological Sovereignty
True technological self-determination for the Caribbean requires a multifaceted approach:
1. Education and Research: We must invest heavily in AI education and research, tailored to our unique context. This means not just teaching coding, but fostering a deep understanding of AI’s societal implications and ethical considerations.
2. Localized AI Development: We must develop AI applications that address our specific needs and challenges, from climate resilience to public health. By focusing on these areas, we can create AI solutions that are not just locally relevant but potentially exportable to other regions facing similar issues.
3. Global AI Governance: We must actively shape the global conversation on AI governance. Our perspectives on data privacy, algorithmic bias, and the future of work are essential and must be heard in international forums.
4. Regional Cooperation: This struggle demands unprecedented unity among Caribbean nations. We must pool our resources, share our expertise, and present a united front in negotiations with global tech companies and in international AI governance discussions. Our strength lies in our collective voice and shared vision.
5. South-South Collaboration: Our struggle is not isolated. We must forge alliances with other regions of the Global South facing similar challenges in the AI era. There is much we can learn from and offer to our counterparts in Africa, Southeast Asia, and Latin America. Together, we can create a powerful counterweight to the digital hegemony of the Global North.
6. Progressive Alliances: We must also engage with forward-thinking forces within the Global North — academics, activists, and ethical technologists who recognize the dangers of digital colonialism and seek to develop more equitable models of technological development. These alliances can provide crucial support and amplify our voices on the global stage.
The AI revolution presents us with both peril and promise. The peril lies in allowing ourselves to become digital colonies, our data extracted, our cultures flattened, our economic prospects limited by technologies we neither control nor fully understand. The promise lies in harnessing AI to address our unique challenges, amplify our cultural voices, and carve out our own space in the global digital economy.
For in this new world being born, we must ensure that the Caribbean people are not merely subjects of a new digital order, but authors of our own destiny.
The revolution, as always, begins with us. The future — digital, decolonized, and determinedly Caribbean — awaits our creation.
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Paul Thompson is the Founder of HelloScribe A.I — The AI AutoPilot for Strategy & Planning.
