Exploring AI in the majority world at the University of Amsterdam
Author
Date 15 October 2025
ADM+S researcher Anand Badola recently attended the workshop “Publics, Debates, Everyday Injustice, and AI in the Majority World”, held at the University of Amsterdam. The workshop was organised by Roanne van Voorst (UvA), Nafis Hasan (UvA), Sagnik Dutta (Tilburg University), and Siddharth Peter De Souza (University of Warwick).
During the event, Anand presented a paper co-authored with QUT colleague Shubhangi Heda titled “Participative Orientalism and GenAI: A Case Study of Jugalbandi Chatbot as Postcolonial Imaginaries as Technological Governance.” The paper conceptualises a novel framework of participative orientalism to better understand the overlapping imaginaries of GenAI in the postcolonial context of India.
The workshop also provided rich opportunities for networking and knowledge exchange. Anand connected with researchers from around the world, including Gayatri Nair from Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology Delhi, who presented research on platform labour in India, and Wasem Hassan from the London School of Economics, who explored AI and diagnostic authority in Egyptian health clinics.
These discussions opened potential avenues for future collaboration, particularly around understanding the impact and diverse trajectories of GenAI in the Majority World.
Reflecting on the workshop, Anand emphasised the importance of incorporating diverse experiences into AI research.
“Meeting people from different backgrounds reaffirmed the importance of listening and incorporating diverse experiences that societies have with technology, especially from the Majority world,” he said.
Key takeaways from the workshop included understanding diverse experiences of GenAI that people and communities are having in the Majority world and how can researchers and the academic community better understand this change.
This research visit was funded by the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision Making and Society Research Training Program.
