From laughs to courts, multifaceted uses of AI in the Global South

This session aims to explore the various ways in which activists and journalists in Sub-Saharan Africa and Brazil have used artificial intelligence. Language models have taken the Internet by storm and still present unexplored opportunities and dangers. The session will cast a critical perspective on how these AI models are reshaping the media and public sphere only by analyzing distinct applications by citizens and journalists in Sub-Saharan Africa and Brazil. We will delve into how AI tools and techniques are used to create memes that satirize political, social, and cultural issues, exploring the impact of these memes in terms of user engagement, their ability to convey powerful messages, and their role in promoting social and political discourse. We will show that these applications not only make people laugh but also have been used to investigate human rights violations and help analysts and researchers build evidence and use online data to support legal battles.