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).