Can Academia Ethically Use Tools of Techno-Colonial Extraction? The “Problem” of GenAI

Debates on generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) in qualitative research focus on methodological utility versus epistemological harm. We reframe the issue from conditions of use to conditions of production , arguing GenAI’s foundation in exploitative digital labor and geopolitical inequality presents a more fundamental ethical challenge for business and society scholars, who risk complicity in these extractive systems. We outline several pathways through which scholars and institutions can engage GenAI more responsibly.