Artificial Intelligence is Ours: Paths to Technological Sovereignty in the Global South

Abstract

This article reframes artificial intelligence as a matter of sovereignty in the Global South. It explicitly revisits the slogan “O petróleo é nosso” from the Brazilian movement of the 1940s and 1950s, when a narrative of incapacity and lack of resources sought to halt national hydrocarbon exploration, and draws a parallel with today’s concentration of data, software and infrastructure in the North. From that historical mirror, it argues that reversing dependency requires treating AI as a strategic resource under local control, which entails democratizing access to data, building homegrown infrastructure and cultivating technological citizenship with preferential attention to disadvantaged populations. The diagnosis places technological inequality at the center of the problem. It points to the concentration of development hubs in software, hardware and computing, the gap in connectivity and internet quality, and the persistence of cultural and linguistic biases when systems are trained with data that are alien to local contexts. This configuration limits the South’s participation in the digital ecosystem and reproduces historical asymmetries that directly affect the decision-making and innovation capacity of peripheral countries. The implications unfold on several fronts. There is a loss of autonomy in critical sectors such as health, education and security. Vulnerabilities appear in infrastructures that depend on external platforms. Digital exclusion restricts educational and economic opportunities. A continuous transfer of value occurs through imported technologies and data frameworks not grounded in local contexts. The text also warns of dynamics of digital colonialism that deepen technological subordination. As a roadmap, it proposes public policies for research and development, technical and digital education, incentives for local production of hardware and software, data governance and protection aligned with the context in dialogue with the LGPD, South–South cooperation and the integration of regional research and education networks to produce situated knowledge. It integrates sustainability as a guiding axis to align innovation, inclusion and environmental protection. It concludes that technological sovereignty is a strategic objective and an ethical imperative for an autonomous and inclusive future in the Global South.