Fourteenth Global Studies Conference

Abstract

China’s ambition to become a world leader in AI by 2030 includes using developing countries as laboratories to improve its surveillance technologies. In March 2018, the Chinese artificial intelligence company, CloudWalk, signed an agreement with the government of Zimbabwe to deploy facial recognition technology in the African nation. This agreement is unique in Africa in that Harare will send biometric data on thousands of Zimbabwean faces to Chinese companies to train their algorithms on African faces in order to diversify their data sets and improve the accuracy of their products. The currency here is not merely dollars — it is data. Not only does China’s mining of Zimbabweans’ data resurrects painful memories of the European powers pillaging Africa for its human and natural resources during the colonial era, but Chinese technology exports to the African continent, especially facial recognition technology, also raise grave human rights concerns.