Afghanistan Times
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By Maria Zakharova, Spokeswoman, Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Originally published in Rossiyskaya Gazeta
AT Kabul: As artificial intelligence (AI) reshapes the world, a new form of global inequality is emerging, one that revives colonial patterns in digital form. At a recent meeting of the Russian Foreign Ministry, we began a strategic discussion on AI’s international implications. This conversation is no longer just about innovation; it’s about power, control, and sovereignty.
AI, the engine of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, is rapidly becoming a tool of political influence. While Western governments and corporations frame it as progress, their growing monopoly on data, computing power, and infrastructure is creating a new digital dependency for developing nations. These countries are no longer simply users of imported tech—they are now governed by it, through opaque algorithms that influence everything from education to public opinion.
This is neocolonialism 2.0, where dominance is exercised through information control and digital standards. The West, under the banner of “bridging the digital divide,” benefits from the AI boom, while the Global South bears the environmental, economic, and social costs.
AI infrastructure demands enormous energy and resources. According to UN data, the world’s data centers consumed as much power as France in 2022. Google alone used over 21 million cubic meters of drinking water to cool its servers that year, while 2 billion people still lack access to clean water.
Even more troubling is the rising demand for critical minerals like lithium, cobalt, and graphite – most of which are extracted in developing nations under exploitative conditions. Experts warn of “mineral colonialism,” with extraction expected to surge 500% by 2050, deepening environmental degradation and inequality.
Meanwhile, Western states push restrictive environmental standards on the Global South, despite fueling carbon-heavy practices in their own AI supply chains. The digital economy already accounts for more than 3% of global CO₂ emissions, and that figure is climbing fast.
Major powers are racing to dominate the AI frontier. The U.S. plans to spend $500 billion on its “Stargate” project. The EU, UK, and China have announced massive investments, too. AI is now a strategic asset, reshaping economics, security, and diplomacy.
International organizations—from the UN and UNESCO to the OSCE, are responding with new ethical frameworks and policy platforms. But true fairness will require more than guidelines. We must ensure AI doesn’t become a new architecture of digital colonialism, serving the few while exploiting the many.
Russia calls for a multipolar digital world, where AI development respects sovereignty, shares benefits equitably, and avoids repeating the mistakes of past empires, this time through code, not conquest.
