As I read A Sea of Data: Apophenia and Pattern (Mis-)Recognition, I am reminded of Donna Haraway’s Situated Knowledges, where she critiques the dynamics between knowledge and technology. Haraway argues that knowledge is always situated—it emerges from specific contexts, shaped by intersecting geographical, historical, and social forces. It generates its own politics through these intersections.

Technology has long been a form of elitism—who creates it, who controls it, and who is granted access? Those dismissed as mere “noise,” as the article suggests, are often those excluded from technological privileges. These people are valued for their physical labor rather than their digital presence or data. Technological advancements and the access to it, mirrors and reinforces existing hierarchies of power.

As AI emerges, it does not exist as a neutral tool—it is deeply embedded in the interests of tech giants and the relentless extraction of data. It serves as both a mechanism of control and a reflection of a corrupted biased system that is actively shaping it, amplifying the structures of commodification, and exclusion.

How interesting even is AI?