AI's New Frontier: The Empire Builds Alliances
The headlines trumpet India's high-profile AI summit, heralding a new era of global collaboration with leaders and tech giants converging in New Delhi. Corporate media presents this as a benign effort to develop artificial intelligence safely and equitably, painting India as a rising technological hub. We are told this gathering will foster innovation and address AI's future challenges. Yet, a
familiar pattern emerges when examining the guest list and the host nation's strategic position. This isn't the first time Western powers have 'assisted' developing nations; recall the 1960s 'Green Revolution' where US corporations introduced high-yield crops to India, ostensibly to combat famine, but effectively created dependency on Western pesticides and seeds. Similarly, as of 2023,
approximately 80% of global AI chip manufacturing is concentrated in Taiwan, directly tying AI's future to existing geopolitical flashpoints. The presence of major Western tech CEOs and strategic partners at such a summit suggests less an equitable partnership and more a sophisticated play for data control and market dominance, especially given the vast data reserves available in India's sizable
population. What mainstream narratives omit is the enduring legacy of resource extraction, now updated for the digital age. Just as the British East India Company exploited India's material wealth for centuries, the current push for AI collaboration can be seen as a sophisticated mechanism to control nascent digital infrastructure and harvest data – the new oil – from emerging economies. The