Algorithmic Sovereignty and Digital Colonialism: Legal and International Relations Perspectives on AI Governance in the Global South

Abstract

The increasing pace of spreading artificial intelligence technologies has restructured world power relations, world orders, and economies of the world constructs. Although the focus of AI innovation lies in technologically developed states, its application is becoming a more dominant influence in the social, political, and economical life of the Global South. Such asymmetry has led to the intensification of the debate on algorithmic sovereignty and digital colonialism, in which the control of data infrastructures, computational resources, and algorithmic systems is concentrated in the hands of few states and corporations. This qualitative research paper explores the intersections of AI governance regimes on international law and international relations theory to reproduce or destabilize structural inequalities. The article is based on the principles of doctrinal legal analysis, postcolonial theory, and the literature on global political economy and investigates the experience of algorithmic dependency that Global South states undergo and the possibilities of normative options that may be adopted in order to claim technological sovereignty. The results indicate that without the presence of integrated regulatory systems, capacity-building processes, and collaboration between South and South, the issue of AI governance will be prone to reinforce neo-colonial trends in technological superiority. The conclusion of the paper suggests a sovereignty-based framework of reasonable AI governance based on legal pluralism, data justice and multilateral institutional reform.

Keywords: Algorithmic sovereignty, digital colonialism, AI governance, Global South, international law, postcolonial theory, technological dependency.