As the growth of artificial intelligence accelerates, it is already posing significant challenges to society.
asserted
it → accelerate → society
Companies have started laying off workers whose jobs AI models can now perform.
asserted
models → start → jobs
The expansion of data centres has spiked energy consumption and increased the carbon footprint.
asserted
expansion → spike → footprint
AI agents are being used by malicious actors to automate the spread of disinformation.
asserted
agents → use → disinformation
Algorithms are demonstrating bias, raising concerns about flawed application and discrimination by human-related technologies that use them.
asserted
that → demonstrate → them
AI is being used to identify targets in warfare, leading to greater loss of human life.
asserted
AI → use → life
These are complex problems that demand serious regulatory attention.
asserted
that → demand → attention
Yet, today’s dominant AI policy conversations are rarely grounded in these immediate challenges.
asserted
conversations → ground → challenges
Instead, the global discourse has been swept by apocalyptic prophecies.
asserted
discourse → sweep → prophecies
We see this doomsday narrative promoted by some within the AI industry and echoed at the highest levels of decision-making: from lawmakers like Senator Bernie Sanders championing bans on superintelligence, to cautionary messages from the Vatican, to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton calling open-source AI a real threat.
asserted
Clinton → see → AI
It is entirely reasonable for global leaders to take these industry-amplified warnings seriously.
asserted
leaders → take → warnings
However, this chorus of influential voices sounding the alarm about AI “existential risk” has inadvertently pulled our focus away from the multiple crises AI has caused, already affecting labour, the environment and communications.
asserted
AI → sound → labour
Worse still, the public panic is being weaponised to enforce a modern regime of digital colonisation – the concentration of power in the hands of a few AI corporations in a handful of countries.
asserted
panic → weaponise → countries
The doomsday narrative provides the perfect justification for regulations that would target open-source AI models, which are free or cheaper to use and allow users to modify them to fit their needs.
asserted
users → provide → needs
The logic presented to lawmakers is simple and seductive: if advanced AI is a potential weapon of mass destruction, it can only be developed by a trusted few.
asserted
it → present → few
Under the banner of “safety”, tech giants are attempting to write the rules to protect their monopolies by shutting down competition from smaller, cheaper open-source AI models.
asserted
giants → attempt → models
This directly mirrors historical colonial tactics: preventing local industry from developing to force total reliance on the “empire’s” exports.
asserted
This → mirror → exports
Currently, the entire globe is dependent on these frontier AI systems developed by tech giants, especially the Global South, which lacks the resources to create its own AI models from scratch, now costing upwards of $100m in compute power alone.
asserted
which → develop → power
The problem with using the dominant AI models is not only that they are costly, but also that they often fail in local contexts.
asserted
they → use → contexts
Because the imported model was built on assumptions that did not accurately capture the reality of Kenya’s vast informal economy, the system failed spectacularly, systematically overestimating incomes and overcharging the poorest citizens for healthcare premiums.
asserted
system → import → premiums
To be effective, frontier AI systems must be adapted to local data.
asserted
systems → adapt → data
Since building them from scratch is financially impossible for most, open-source AI serves as the only viable bridge for local innovators.
asserted
AI → build → innovators
More importantly, preserving open-source AI allows the Global South to step off the West’s treadmill of human-mimicking chatbots.
asserted
South → preserve → chatbots
Developing nations do not necessarily need conversational AI systems; they need AI that can help tackle development challenges in areas such as energy, healthcare, agriculture, manufacturing and climate mitigation.
asserted
that → develop → energy
If we crush open-source AI out of a disproportionate fear of AI agents, developing nations lose the main mechanism they have to build their own sovereign tech ecosystems for development.
asserted
they → crush → development
Furthermore, AI monopolies lock in users in a cycle of data extraction and severe cognitive dependency.
asserted
monopolies → lock → extraction
We are already witnessing the early stages of cognitive degradation as users increasingly outsource their critical thinking, creativity, and agency to frontier AI systems.
asserted
users → witness → systems
This dependency creates a feedback loop where our growing reliance fuels more data extraction, which in turn builds even more capable systems that strip away human agency and centralise absolute control.
asserted
that → create → control
While the Global South is uniquely vulnerable due to historical inequities, this dependency traps anyone not at the frontier.
asserted
dependency → trap → frontier
Even wealthy nations in the Global North face the exact same threat of lock-in and extraction.
asserted
nations → face → in
Abandoning AI would mean letting go of a technology uniquely positioned to accelerate the discovery of new drugs and new solutions to the energy and climate crises.
asserted
Abandoning → abandon → crises
Banning open-source AI models is also a bad choice.
asserted
Banning → ban → models
Safety does not negate equitable access to AI.
asserted
Safety → negate → AI
We can, and must, fund robust safety research and implement rigorous testing for near-term breaches.
asserted
We → fund → breaches
But we cannot allow the fear of hypothetical futures to justify the deliberate consolidation of power in the present.
asserted
fear → allow → present
Safeguarding the future of AI means ensuring that its development is decentralised, transparent, and globally distributed.
asserted
development → safeguard → AI
It means defending open-source innovation as a public good and a fundamental weapon against digital colonisation.
asserted
It → mean → colonisation
It means proactively addressing the human cognitive toll of the technology, ensuring that AI serves to augment human intelligence rather than erode it.
asserted
AI → mean → it
It means anchoring absolute accountability in humans, instead of anthropomorphising AI agents that possess no humanity.
asserted
that → mean → humanity
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.
asserted
views → express → stance
The Aporia
