Maria AI and Big Techs: a colonial datafication of Brazil’s Supreme Court?

Abstract

The research investigates how digital colonialism manifests in the adoption of technologies by Brazil's public sector, analyzing strategies to promote technological autonomy. Using a qualitative approach, it examines official documents, studies cases like AI implementation in the Supreme Court (STF), and compares international experiences. The results reveal contradictions between local development and dependence on foreign infrastructure, demonstrating how global regulatory asymmetries maintain Brazil in a peripheral position. The analysis identifies four fundamental pillars for building technological sovereignty: developing national data infrastructure, creating regulatory frameworks that protect national interests, investing in training qualified professionals, and implementing specific industrial policies for the sector. The study concludes by emphasizing the urgent need for an integrated national project that would enable the country to transition from being merely a technology consumer to becoming a technology producer, thereby overcoming contemporary colonial relations in the digital field and ensuring greater strategic autonomy in the information age.