Sebastián’s research focuses on the governance of digital technologies from a global social justice perspective. His current project, AI’s Nature, explores the connection between Artificial Intelligence and environmental justice. In this work, he has engaged with urban, peasant and Indigenous communities in Chile and Colombia mobilising against a data centre project, resisting lithium extraction and participating in AI-centred conservationist initiatives. His previous project, Scientific Data Colonialism, examined the governance of astronomy data in Chile. Sebastián’s approach combines ethnographic methods, political ecology and decolonial thought. He has also contributed to conceptual development on data friction, digital sovereignty and reflexivity in critical data studies.

Sebastián has collaborated with research teams on a Horizon 2020 project addressing the ethics of the Internet of Things (LSE) and on digital platforms for human rights (University of Cambridge). He holds a PhD in Data, Networks, and Society from the Department of Media and Communications at the London School of Economics and received the 2022 Dissertation Award from the Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR).

Teaching

Sebastián designed and taught the module 'Technology and Global Social Justice' at the Department of Politics and International Studies (University of Cambridge). At King’s, he co-designed the module ‘Media, Technology and the Environment’ with Dr Güneş Tavmen. Sebastián is an Associate Fellow (AFHEA) at AdvanceHE.

Affiliations

Sebastián is a member of the International Panel on the Information Environment. He is also a fellow at the Centre of Governance and Human Rights and the Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy, both based at the University of Cambridge. Additionally, he is a member of the Future of Artificial Intelligence Research group involving three Chilean universities, and was a fellow at the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at Harvard University from 2022 to 2024.

Selected publications

• Lehuedé, S. (2024). An Elemental Ethics for Artificial Intelligence: Water as Resistance Within AI’s Value Chain. AI & Society.
• Lehuedé, S. (2024). The Double Helix of Data Extraction: Radicalising Reflexivity in Critical Data Studies. Technology and Regulation.
• Lehuedé, S. (2024). An Alternative Planetary Future? Digital Sovereignty Frameworks and the Decolonial Option. Big Data & Society.
• Lehuedé, S. (2023). The Coloniality of Collaboration: Sources of Epistemic Obedience in Data-Intensive Astronomy in Chile. Information, Communication & Society.
• Lehuedé, S. (2022). When Friction Becomes the Norm: Antagonism, Discourse and Planetary Data Turbulence. New Media & Society.

Expertise and public engagement

Sebastián has co-organised workshops and talks on data centre activism (Alan Turing Institute’s Postdoctoral Enrichment Award), reflexivity in critical data studies and digital sovereignty. Outside academia, he has collaborated with organisations such as Berlin-based AlgorithmWatch, Chilean-based Derechos Digitales, Oxfam International and the Constitutional Convention in Chile. When it comes to talks, he has been invited by the Barcelona Municipality, the Singapore Biennale and other instances. Sebastián has published knowledge exchange articles in outlets such as Progressive International and Open Democracy and been interviewed by sustAIn magazine and Anti-Dystopians podcast.