Digital Colonialism: Is AI the New East India Company for India?

• Prominent AI leaders are in Delhi for the India AI Impact Summit, with significant investment announcements expected.
• The author argues that the current AI landscape mirrors the historical playbook of the East India Company, leading to "digital colonialism."
• This playbook involves capturing networks, appropriating knowledge, restructuring production, and destroying local capacity, similar to how Britain decimated India's textile industry.
• In AI, this translates to India supplying talent and data, while Silicon Valley owns the IP and models, which India then buys back.
• The article warns that free AI services could eventually lead to India paying billions in "rent" to foreign tech giants, akin to historical exploitation.