Navigating the Sociotechnical Imaginaries of Brazilian Tech Workers

Tech workers in Brazil envision responsibility differently than Western frameworks suggest: The study of 26 Brazilian tech professionals reveals tensions between how academic institutions and industry discuss algorithmic bias, indicating that global conversations about AI ethics may not reflect how practitioners in the Global South actually think about and implement responsible AI practices.

Corporate accountability for user harm remains a contested issue: The research found that tech workers identify significant limits in how companies take responsibility for the harms their systems cause users and the surveillance embedded in platforms, suggesting that current corporate accountability mechanisms may be insufficient from a practitioner's perspective.

Digital sovereignty means different things to different communities: The study documents competing interpretations of digital sovereignty, including grassroots initiatives by Brazilian workers seeking to build technological alternatives that better serve marginalized communities' needs—highlighting that responsible AI cannot be defined solely by dominant tech hubs.

The Global South perspective challenges universal approaches to AI governance: By centering Brazilian workers' voices, the research demonstrates that locally situated values and constraints shape how technology should be developed and governed, suggesting that responsible AI frameworks designed without input from the Global South may miss critical considerations.

Overlooked workers shape the systems that affect everyone: Despite their crucial role in designing digital systems that impact daily life, Brazilian tech workers have been largely absent from digital labor and AI responsibility discussions, indicating a gap in whose perspectives inform responsible AI development.