Hi everyone, 

Please join us for the next AI Futures seminar by Dr. Sebastián Lehuedé, who will discuss his recent research on environmental justice and AI. The seminar is open to all, and will take place online on May 12, 2026 at 1.30 PM BST. Register here!

Beyond Hubris: In Situ AI and Peasant Ecological Struggles in Colombia

Many 'AI for sustainability' initiatives pursue ambitious goals, such as emissions reduction, yet often fail to address local ecological realities. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in Colombia, this talk analyses two initiatives: one led by Microsoft in the Amazon and another developed by scientists and peasants in the High Andes. Through this analysis, it traces the emergence of in situ AI, highlighting its capacity to engage with local ecological struggles and address environmental injustices. Nevertheless, questions remain about whether in situ AI can effectively tackle urgent, planetary-scale environmental challenges.

Speaker bio 

Sebastián Lehuedé is a Lecturer (equivalent to Assistant Professor) in Ethics, AI and Society in the Department of Digital Humanities at King’s College London. Sebastián’s research focuses on the governance of digital technologies from a global social justice perspective. His current project, AI’s Nature, explores the connection between Artificial Intelligence and environmental justice. In this work, he has engaged with urban, peasant and Indigenous communities in Chile and Colombia mobilising against a data centre project, resisting lithium extraction and participating in AI-centred conservationist initiatives. His previous project, Scientific Data Colonialism, examined the governance of astronomy data in Chile. Sebastián’s approach combines ethnographic methods, political ecology and decolonial thought. He has also contributed to conceptual development on data friction, digital sovereignty and reflexivity in critical data studies. He holds a PhD in Data, Networks, and Society from the Department of Media and Communications at the London School of Economics and received the 2022 Dissertation Award from the Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR).