The Digital Divide Reimagined: AI, Human Vulnerabilities, and Cybersecurity Risks in the Majority World

2025 #SharetheMicinCyber Fellow Nina-Simone Edwards published an article on reimagining the digital divide in Oxford Intersections:

The digital divide has long been framed as an issue primarily of broadband access. However, as AI is increasingly integrated into society, disparities in digital literacy, digital skills, and cybersecurity risks are equally pressing. Although AI is often presented as a tool for bridging inequalities in the Majority World, its deployment frequently introduces new layers of inequities, particularly for those already facing digital disadvantages. This article examines AI-related risks in the Majority World through the lens of layered vulnerability, a feminist theory that moves beyond static categories to explore how individuals experience intersecting, often layered, digital and cybersecurity risks. While vulnerability is generally conceptualized either as a human condition (shaped by factors like socioeconomic status, education, and digital access), or as a technical issue (characterized by security flaws that can be exploited), this paper brings these two discourses into conversation by examining how individuals’ digital disadvantages exacerbate cybersecurity risks in the Majority World. Building on scholarship on the digital and AI divide, as well as on vulnerability theories (and relying on a Black feminist foundation), this article reframes the AI divide by linking human and cybersecurity vulnerabilities, and uses hypothetical case studies to investigate how the AI divide may compound cybersecurity risks in the Majority World. Vulnerability should not be treated as an isolated risk factor; instead, it must be accounted for as a structural condition that demands accountability, inclusive design, and infrastructural investment.

Read the full article here.