Higher education in India is poised for colossal changes with deleterious outcomes under ‘surveillance capitalism,’ G. Arunima, Director of Kerala Council for Historical Research (KCHR) has said.
She was delivering the third Scholars of Eminence Web-Lectures, organised by the Inter University Centre for Social Science Research and Extension (IUCSSRE), Mahatma Gandhi University on Sunday.
According to Ms.Arunima, ‘surveillance capitalism’ and its engagements with big data will eventually lead to people giving up their privacy and their personal information.
The data collected covertly by big tech giants could be potential sources for predicting and influencing human behaviour which has consequences for freedom and political choices.
“Artificial Intelligence (AI)-driven comprehensive, totalizing behavioural changes will have long-term implications for public university in India,” she noted.
“The twenty-first century capitalism is no longer interested in what you buy, but they want to understand your psyche. It is far more interested in behavioural transformation through big data, and the algorithms are produced to influence the outcomes,” Ms. Arunima said.
Udayakumar, Fellow at the Nonte Institute of Advanced Study, France, chaired the session.
