The Aesthetics of Dispossession: Necropolitics, Cultural Representation, and Artificial Intelligence in Latin America

Abstract

This article examines the intersection between necropolitics—understood as the capacity of states and hegemonic powers to decide over life and death—and Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies within the cultural and sociopolitical context of Latin America. It is grounded in the assumption that AI is not a neutral tool, but a sociotechnical dispositif that, by drawing on historical data and narratives, reproduces and amplifies persistent patterns of material and symbolic dispossession characteristic of the region. From this perspective, the text analyzes how an “aesthetics of dispossession” manifests through algorithmic systems, particularly in the realm of cultural representation, where AI tends to reinforce colonial, racial, and gender biases by producing images, narratives, and classifications that render non-hegemonic Latin American identities and memories invisible or distorted. Methodologically, the study adopts a critical and transdisciplinary approach that brings together political theory, cultural studies, and case analysis focused on the implementation and impacts of AI in countries such as Brazil and Mexico. The article concludes that the uncritical adoption of these technologies constitutes a new phase of accumulation by dispossession, in which bodies, lived experiences, and, crucially, the data of marginalized populations become key inputs of the AI economy. This situation underscores the urgent need to develop an ethics of artificial intelligence rooted in the Global South, prioritizing historical reparation, data sovereignty, and the decolonization of cultural representation.