At the Tensions of South and North: Critical Roles of Global South Stakeholders in AI Governance

Abstract

This paper aims to present a landscape of AI governance for and from the Global South, advanced by critical and decolonial-informed practitioners and scholars, and contrast this with the Inclusive AI Governance discourse led out of Global North institutions. By doing so, it identifies gaps in the dominant AI governance discourse, and bridges these gaps with relevant discourses of technology and power, localisation, and historical-geopolitical analyses of inequality led by Global South aligned actors. Specific areas of concern addressed by this paper include infrastructural and regulatory monopolies, harms associated with the labour and material supply chains of AI infrastructure, and commercial exploitation. By contrasting Global South and Global North discourses surrounding AI risks, this paper proposes a systemic restructuring of AI governance processes beyond current frameworks of Inclusive AI governance, offering three roles for Global South actors to substantively engage in AI governance processes.