Скачать или смотреть The AI Tower: Unpacking the Perils of a Monoculture of Meaning

Article link: https://open.substack.com/pub/johanos...

This article argues that as powerful large language models become central to how we access and interpret information, we risk creating a “digital Tower of Babel” – not through fragmented languages, but through a homogenised, Western-centric worldview. With AI development concentrated in a handful of big tech companies, mostly in the West, decision-making is opaque, accountability is weak, and vast amounts of data are controlled by a few corporate actors. This centralisation threatens privacy, autonomy, and democratic oversight, while shaping what is considered legitimate knowledge in ways that may exclude non-Western perspectives.

The author is particularly concerned about the marginalisation of African epistemologies, indigenous knowledge systems, and oral traditions. If the “scaffolding of meaning” in the digital age is owned and shaped by a small group of Western corporations, nations like South Africa risk sliding into digital colonialism, losing both sovereignty and cultural depth. For children growing up with these systems, there is a danger of cultural disconnection and diminished critical thinking. The article calls for a pluralistic AI ecosystem – many models, datasets, and value systems, including Afrocentric and regionally governed initiatives – to ensure technology reflects and serves diverse human experiences rather than entrenching a monoculture of meaning.