The New Leviathan: AI Power, Privacy and India's Social Divide- An Analysis in the Current Context

The Artificial Intelligence era is facilitating ‘the new leviathan’, that is, digital control and algorithmic dominance. This critically impacts privacy concerns and enhances social inequalities. Therefore, this paper aims to critically interrogate the intersecting relationship between AI and privacy, accelerating social divide and inequalities. It revolves around the AI system in India and primary research conducted over a demographically diverse section of Indians. It showcases how certain factors such as caste, class, income, genders, age groups, literacy, etc., overlaps with the digital inequalities in India. This research has opted for a combination of qualitative and quantitative analysis, in which the primary data has been collected through systematic surveys from different regions of India from over 150 + respondents. The significant findings of this study uncovers that majority of participants affirm that income impacts an individual’s knowledge and access to AI, there is a weak correlation between AI understanding and subsequent awareness about AI privacy, and there is a significant association between the age group and understanding of AI. Majority confirms that social media is space where they can witness explicit prevalence of AI using their data, they also assert that protecting user data is a collective responsibility of individual users, government, private companies and international forums, and they also endorse by a majority that education can notably help in spreading awareness about AI usage. This study concludes by endorsing a strong need to strengthen the existing laws by better practical implementation, updating the statutes as per the changing times and needs.