2025.Jul.31

REPORTS

Report on the 36th B’AI Book Club
Anita Say Chan (2025) Predatory Data: Eugenics in Big Tech and Our Fight for an Independent Future

On March 25, 2025, the 36th meeting of the B’AI Book Club took place. This session was led by Associate Professor Ai Hisano, who reviewed “Predatory Data: Eugenics in Big Tech and Our Fight for an Independent Future” by Anita Say Chan. The discussion explored the intersections of data capitalism, surveillance, and the legacy of eugenics within technological systems. Professor Hisano summarized the book’s argument that contemporary data infrastructures are deeply rooted in eugenic logics, shaping predictive analytics, AI-driven governance, and meritocratic tech cultures.

Each chapter was discussed, from the historical rise of data-driven eugenics to modern manifestations in smart cities and corporate surveillance. Prof. Hisano highlighted Chan’s call for “data pluralism”—a framework built on feminist, immigrant, and community-led alternatives that resist extractive data regimes. The session emphasized the need to reimagine data ethics and infrastructures through decolonial and justice-centered approaches. Prof. Hisano also underscored the book’s unique theoretical and political contributions, noting its critical engagement with science and technology studies (STS), media studies, and decolonial theory. The book reframes eugenics as an enduring data infrastructure and positions resistance not merely as reform, but as a reimagining of knowledge systems grounded in pluralism, equity, and community agency.