Introduction

This special issue of Globalizations explores the political economy of artificial intelligence (AI) in South America, examining how global technological transformations intersect with enduring patterns of dependency, inequality, and epistemic marginalization. While AI is reshaping global power relations, prevailing debates remain dominated by Northern perspectives that obscure Southern experiences. The contributions situate AI within broader global dynamics of capitalism, coloniality, and financialization, analysing its impacts on digital governance, labor, migration, and Indigenous epistemologies. Empirical cases reveal how AI reproduces center–periphery asymmetries through data extraction and technological dependency yet also enables emergent forms of resistance and sovereignty. By advancing decolonial, feminist, and place-based approaches, the collection expands the research agenda for the International Political Economy of AI and calls for more plural, situated understandings of technology and development in the Global South.