However, while oil is a physical resource, data is an infinite by-product of human activity generated through every digital interaction. While the Industrial Revolution was built on the extraction of minerals and labour from colonised countries, the Artificial Intelligence (AI) revolution has been built on the extraction of “behavioural patterns” of global citizens. Scholars and policymakers refer to this process as “data colonialism.” The actual problem is that the data is generated globally, particularly in the high-growth markets of the Global South, but the profits derived from it are concentrated in the hands of a few multinational corporations in the Global North. However, international trade law, particularly the World Trade Organisation (WTO) framework, is not sufficiently robust to prevent this digital resource drain, as it was developed in the late 20th century, when the digital world was still evolving.
The concept of data colonialism
