The silent revolution: artificial intelligence, social justice, and community change
No. 13 (2025-09-16)Author(s)
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Sara Duque RuizUniversidad de AntioquiaORCID iD: https://orcid.org/0009-0003-4182-3986
Abstract
Artificial intelligence (AI) is quietly transforming everyday life in Latin America. From a critical and decolonial perspective, this paper explores how algorithms can both sustain inequalities and promote social justice and community organizing. Two specific cases are examined: Sisbén IV in Colombia, a system that unfairly classified Afro-descendant communities, and the Red Tide Alert community project in Cartagena, where artisanal fishers trained an AI system with low-cost sensors to predict algal blooms and protect their livelihoods. The text argues that data and algorithmic models can reproduce colonial logics, but it also highlights that participatory governance, based on data sovereignty and cognitive justice, can guide AI use toward the common good. Five principles for decolonial and community-based algorithmic ethics are proposed, and the text concludes with a thoughtful call to develop public policies that do not delegate ethics to technology but instead embody it through social participation.
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