Mains Practice Questions

Introduction:

The statement “Innovation without compassion leads to exploitation” is especially relevant in today’s digital era, where Artificial Intelligence (AI), surveillance tools, and platform monopolies are shaping global power structures. While technology can democratise opportunities, its unregulated and profit-driven use can create new forms of digital colonisation, where technologically advanced nations dominate decision-making, data flows, and digital infrastructure in less developed countries.

Body :

Digital Colonisation: Emerging Ethical Concerns

• AI Bias and Algorithmic Inequality : AI models trained on Western or private datasets often reflect racial, gender, and cultural biases.
  • Example: Facial recognition systems misidentify African and Asian faces at higher rates, leading to discriminatory policing and surveillance.
• Surveillance Capitalism and Erosion of Autonomy : Tech giants use data extraction to influence behaviour and consumer choices.
  • Example: The Cambridge Analytica incident showed how political opinions across nations could be manipulated through targeted profiling.
• Digital Monopolies and Infrastructure Dependency : A handful of companies control cloud services, app stores, payments, and social media ecosystems.
  • Example: African nations relying heavily on foreign cloud infrastructure face risks of data localisation challenges and loss of strategic autonomy.
• Unequal Access to Frontier Technologies : High-cost technologies like Quantum Computing, 5G/6G, and AI chips remain concentrated in a few advanced nations, deepening developmental divides.

Ethical Principles Technologically Advanced Nations Must Uphold

• Human-Centric and Compassionate Innovation : Technologies must prioritise human dignity, welfare, and rights over profit or geopolitical power.
  • Example: The EU’s AI Act emphasises “human oversight” and bans harmful uses of AI like social scoring.
• Digital Justice and Equity : Nations must adopt policies ensuring fair access to technology, bridging digital divides rather than widening them.
  • Promote affordable global internet initiatives.
  • Share open-source AI solutions with developing nations.
• Transparency and Explainability: Algorithms influencing public life—credit, policing, healthcare—must be transparent and auditable.
  • Example: Open algorithm audits can prevent discriminatory AI deployments in developing democracies.
• Accountability and Liability: Nations must ensure that corporations deploying harmful technologies bear responsibility for misuse, data breaches, or AI-driven harm.
  • Mandatory human rights impact assessments for tech export.
• Respect for Data Sovereignty: Developing nations should own and regulate the data generated by their citizens.
  • Encourage local data centres, sovereign cloud infrastructure, and privacy laws aligned with global standards (GDPR-like).
• Ethical Technology Transfer and Fair Collaboration: Advanced nations should avoid techno-imperialist practices and instead support capacity-building.
  • Example: India’s Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) partnerships (UPI, CoWIN) showcase a cooperative, pro-equity model.
• Avoidance of Surveillance Exports: Exporting spyware or authoritarian surveillance tools compromises global democratic values.
  • Pegasus-like spyware incidents highlight the need for strict export controls.

Conclusion

To ensure a just digital future, technology must be treated as a Global Public Good, not a geopolitical weapon. We must move from an "Attention Economy" to an "Empathy Economy," ensuring the digital revolution empowers the last mile user (Antyodaya).