Anasuya Sengupta: AI, Colonising Knowledge, and Iran's Information War

Description

The internet is a monocrop. A plantation of knowledge in English, owned by a handful of mega corporations, built on the bones of colonial infrastructure. And we are no longer just the consumers and as ever we are the product, the training set, the data points. So who gets to imagine the future? A leadership podcast about people, power and possibilities. This week on If You Were In Charge, Sanam and Kavita sit down with Anasuya Sengupta, co-founder of Whose Knowledge?, a global multilingual campaign to centre the knowledges of marginalised communities (the minoritised majority of the world) online. Anasuya traces a direct line from the telegraph networks of the British Empire to today’s Big Tech monopolies. But this is not just a story of extraction. Anasuya shares what it looks like when voices from the margins reimagine technology. From building sovereign language models in Bangla, Urdu and Hindi, to transforming Wikipedia so that women are no longer invisible. The episode opens with Sanam and Kavita reflecting on the Iran ceasefire, the extraordinary Lego memes coming out of Iran, and what it means when the world is surprised that Iranians have both sophisticated technology and a sense of humour. Anasuya Sengupta — Co-founder of Whose Knowledge? (https://whoseknowledge.org/) Enjoyed this episode? Follow If You Were In Charge wherever you listen and leave a rating to help more people find the show. Get in touch and stay connected: Email ICAN: info@icanpeacework.org (mailto:info@icanpeacework.org) Sign up to the ICAN newsletter: https://icanpeacework.org/2025/03/sign-up-to-icans-newsletter/ More from us: adapodcasts.com (https://adapodcasts.com) If You Were In Charge is brought to you by ICAN, the International Civil Society Action Network. An ADA Production. Original Music, Little Monster Media Executive Producer: Pearse Lynch This is an ADA Production (https://www.adapodcasts.com/) Timeline • 00:00 — Cold open: A