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This week, TypeRight explores what the research team at DEF is reading in the news, and other books we got our hands on!
The first couple of weeks of the year have been quite eventful globally, with a new US president swearing in, some twists and turns in AI development, a fragile ceasefire in the genocidal war on Gaza, and several other elections across the world.
First, given the developments on AI - and hoping you've caught up with our piece last week- here is an intersting article from The Boston Review on the AI we got now versus the AI we deserve
And this Jacobin Piece on how algorithmic governance has increased since Trump (DEF has collaborated with the Alan Turing Foundation on the impacts of unchecked algorithms in India. You can find our report on DEF's website)
The above maybe older articles from the end of last year, but these clippings were collected from the last two weeks ' newspapers:
'Deep Research' is OpenAI's new offering, perhaps realeased to the public earlier than planned with the arrival of a chinese competitior. However, the potential of a deep research in going beyond text generation to a method-centric explanation of where and how the information came from could see people relying more on this feature over google search - as some have suggested, a shift from Search Engine Optimisation.
We had run into several posts, trends and predictions on social media platforms regarding the end of SEO - but we are all in one way or the other facing several impacts - including research, writing and coding careers. The report from TOI below looks at the impact of AI in banking sector. Big pundits, as seen in the article, claim the same thing in a different paraphrase "AI is not threatening peoples jobs, you can leverage AI correctly to your benefit"
This is not very different from the standard rhetoric of how technology is not the problem, it can be leveraged for good - but the question is of how this leveraging is done. And who is it good for. But more on this later -
As China's DeepSeek sent shock-waves across Silicon Valley, Indian tech companies are now thinking of how to tackle this, along with the government policy and big instituites - because the AI competition has become like an arms race or the space race of the second half of the previous century, it is important for both soft power as well as security. The current developments like Ola's Krutrim not just pale in comparison, but the increased adaption of AI in software jobs would mean a significant blow to the Indian IT industry - which focused less on innovation and more on the backend maintenance, jobs which are easily taken over by AI.
This does not stop present AI giants from promoting innovation - although the associated costs are not light on the budget.
Talking of jobs taken over (or made easoer, depending on which angle you look at), Professors are using AI to simplify workload like setting question papers and mock tests.
Now, its possible that not everyone would be convinced if we make analogies of the Nuclear Arms Race of the Cold War era to developments in AI today, but perhaps this piece would help change views. AI is more than something you use to make homework easy or draft your leave letter, AI becomes deeply important for military and geopolitical strategy.
And if India is to enter into this race, it needs to build primary infrastructure that is beyond skilling up engineers. Where half the nation faces power shortages, demand or lobbying to reallocate vast amounts of financial resources and energy resources into large data centers and processing centers can be no small decision.
On a different note from AI, with rising cases of fraud and money scams on the rise, the government and RBI had to take cognisance, however late. It's effectiveness is still questionable.
In news from across the ocean, the new American effort to cut 'wasteful and excess expenses' under Elon Musk's department is more likely to cut social security benefits for the poorest in America. With this level of access, Musk can now rewrite and mess with existing investigations into his company and business dealings, something that is not exactly new to our part of the world. We will keep an eye and update on what claimed savings the American budget will get (and what its people will get), in future blogposts.
In India, the Right to Information (RTI) Act was a watershed moment in ensuring that people may politely and independently request government records. But it hasn't done what was expected of it and hasn't made democracy better. There were large protests and the administration scrapped the revisions after realising the Act gave power to citizens rather than public personnel. Citizens found it difficult to pursue the matter of denial of information because the majority of the Information Commissions appointed under the Act were retired bureaucrats. Judgements from the High Court contended that the exemptions mentioned in Section 8 infringed against the basic rights of citizens. One RTI petitioner in the case of Girish Ramchandra Deshpande vs. Cen. Information Commissioner & Ors. wanted a copy of a public servant's memoranda, show cause notices, and punishments or censures. Section 8(1)(j) protects personally identifiable information from disclosure unless the Central Public Information Officer determines that doing so is in the public interest, which is why the court rejected his motion. This decision has transformed RTI into RDI, or Right to Deny Information, and has been followed by six more court rulings.
However, the most blown out of proportion news of the past month is the youtube comedy show that had an obscene joke. We are not getting into the debate of the level of obscenity of the joke, but the repercussions are these:
This is timely, with most mainstream TV havin primetime debates on the matter, around the same time as the stampedes in Delhi and Allahabad, or the resignation of the Manipur CM following years of unrest, and public opinion all geared up to introduce even more censorship. We will leave it to the readers to connect these dots.
Articles by DEF
E-governance services and basic privileges, particularly for PwDs (People with Disabilities), depend on digital citizenship in India. Problems with education, healthcare, and work are just a few of the many obstacles that people with disabilities encounter in the digital environment, according to a study that covered all of India and was conducted by DEF, BIF, and CDPP. According to the research, a digital inclusiveness plan has to think about more than just the availability of resources. Contextual and targeted techniques allow distant access to physical digital service centres and satisfy the demands of local digital ecosystems, while the Indian Standard for Information and Communication Technology Accessibility guarantees web accessibility. People with disabilities (PwDs) may live with dignity and respect thanks to digital technologies, according to a study with 300+ PwD digital changemakers. The widening digital divide in India is made more apparent by the fact that the present indicator of digital integration is inadequate. The research suggests that the DPDP Act should be rethought since some of its clauses potentially put too much weight on the role of legal guardians and not enough on autonomy and personhood. To eliminate digital disparities, the government should make digital services more accessible, improve internet connectivity, and create a model that focusses on the people.
Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism by Yanis Varoufakis
This book isn't exactly new, but we picked it up again after the political developments between Silicon Valley and Washington DC the past few months. Yanis, the former finance minister of Greece during a time of turbulence and rebellion, writes on how the technological relations we assume under the system of capitalism is morphing, or rather, regressing into a new form of feudalism - that of the cloud companies and their capital, i.e., the huge data and infrastructures owned by these companies. Users generate/produce data which is owned by these fiefs however do not own them.
Technocolonialism: When Technology for Good is Harmful
Dr. Mirca Madianou came up with the idea of technocolonialism, which examines how digital tools like artificial intelligence and big data might lead to new kinds of violence and power disparities between the global North and South. In order to demonstrate the essential role that digital technologies play in reworking colonial genealogies and to underscore the necessity of critical AI studies and postcolonial discussions, the book looks at practices such biometric technology normalisation, datafication, and experimentation in refugee camps.
And in case you missed reading this-
DEF's founder-director has written a review which you can read here:
We are also reading this- even if is not exactly the book like the previous ones we mentioned - would come in handy in times where the tolerance towards any form of dissent is dwindling.
TypeRight - The Digital Nukkad, is a weekly conversational bulletin curated through the news and discussions on social media as well as what's happening on the ground. Through the eyes and ears of Digital Empowerment Foundation across rural India and global south, TypeRight aspires to focus on bringing the contextual relevance of digital technologies and developments on the society - both connected and unconnected.
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