Key points are not available for this paper at this time.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is woven into a supply chain of capital, commodities and human labour that has been neglected in critical debates. Given the current surge in generative AI – which is estimated to drive up the extraction of natural resources such as minerals, fossil fuels or water – it is vital to investigate its entire production line from a critical infrastructural perspective. Drawing on the supply chain capitalism, a concept coined by Anna L. Tsing in 2009, this paper contributes to critical AI studies by investigating the structure of AI supply chains, taking into account the mining, electronics, digital and e-waste industry. This paper illustrates how the supply chain capitalism of AI is precipitating geographical asymmetries connected to contested struggles in México by focusing on a key element of these chains: data centres. In times of climate emergency, this paper calls to reconsider algorithmic harms and resistance by investigating the entire capitalist production line of the AI industry from critical and environmental lens.
Ana Valdivia (Wed,) studied this question.