Rodrigues is also developing a second research project, titled Justification beyond the Human: Anticolonial Ethics, AI, and the Politics of Classification, which examines colonial data categorization, anticolonial subversions of these practices, and their implications for contemporary artificial intelligence governance.
This project examines how AI-generated classification systems reshape justificatory discourse, creating new logics of legitimacy beyond traditional legal frameworks. Unlike constitutional justification, AI-driven legitimacy is opaque and unaccountable, but it is increasingly determining access to rights and recognition. This project asks how anticolonial ethics, particularly self-respect and participatory justification, can challenge algorithmic governance. By comparing imperial modes of categorization with AI-generated categories, it explores how legitimacy and human recognition are transformed. It argues that justification must expand beyond fairness to include self-respect, human agency, and the right to contest algorithmic decisions, bridging anticolonial struggles with contemporary debates on AI ethics and governance.
