I am a doctoral researcher in media studies at Tampere University, Finland, focusing on disinformation, gamification, hate infrastructures, mediatized memories, and political violence. I lead the social media research team for the Luce Foundation-funded project on Muslims in India under Hindu majoritarianism, alongside professors from Science Po, Princeton, and Columbia University. Previously, I was a fellow at Oxford’s Reuters Institute and the Nordic Institute of Asian Studies. I have over 20 years of experience as an investigative journalist, covering environmental justice, human rights, and conflicts in the Indian subcontinent, earning multiple awards, including the Kurt Schork Memorial Award. I have taught journalism at various Indian universities, am a certified media literacy trainer, and have conducted over 40 training sessions in India and Bangladesh. My work has been featured in major international media, and I was formerly India editor of AFP's fact-checking division.

My research topic is Cross-Border AI Licensing and Royalty Classification: Rethinking International Tax Rules for API Access, Model Licensing, and AI-Driven Services. AI companies increasingly monetize their technology through API access, model licensing, subscription-based services, and usage-based pricing. These models generate cross-border payments that do not fit neatly within treaty categories such as royalties, technical services, or business profits. Existing treaty wordings were drafted for static, human-led software and location-based value creation, not for automated inference, cloud-based model delivery, or AI-generated outputs. As a result, tax authorities struggle to determine whether payments for AI model access constitute use of copyright, use of equipment, automated digital services, or a hybrid category not contemplated by current treaties. Divergent OECD and UN approaches and AI's reliance on distributed server infrastructure further increase interpretive uncertainty and the risks of double taxation/non-taxation, and tax planning based on contractual structuring or server location. Against this backdrop, the dissertation develops a doctrinal framework for classifying cross-border AI-related payments. Paper 1 analyses the legal nature of Income arising from AI models by proposing a taxonomy of AI-related rights—model weights, training data rights, inference rights, and deployment rights—and assessing whether API access is “use of copyright,” whether inference is “use of equipment,” whether fine-tuning transfers IP, and whether AI outputs qualify as automated services. Paper 2 evaluates the limits of the OECD and UN Model Conventions for income arising from AI models by analysing the relevant treaty articles and their applicability to modern AI transactions. Paper 3 proposes new treaty provisions for AI-based transactions, examining whether a dedicated article is needed, how taxing rights should be allocated, and how to prevent double (non) taxation. The Introduction will present the context, article summaries, and methods. Together, the papers provide a unified framework for future treaty reform.

Alex is a PhD student in social philosophy at Tampere University and an associate director - social specialist at Wardell Armstrong International. His research involves introducing critical theory approaches (e.g., Recognition theory, decolonial and critical gender theories), to implement novel practices in environmental, social, community health and human rights impact assessment studies. His work in ESG consultancy is largely conducted in the Global South, evaluating impacts from renewable energy, oil and gas, mining and infrastructure projects, with a focus on vulnerable groups.

The early-stage doctoral researcher focused on hydrogen (and, broader, energy) regulation at the EU level

Projects

ICT4EEDU - Strengthening ICT in Education in Eritrea

Ph.D. student of Technical Sciences at the University of Vaasa - Finland. Master of Science in Engineering, Environmental and Energy Engineering, the University of Sheffield - UK. Industrial Engineer, Universidad Santiago de Cali - Colombia. Currently working as a project researcher at VEBIC@University of Vaasa. Work experience in several electricity companies in Colombia.

Projects

Sickness, health and therapeutic trajectories in the Kilimanjaro region, Tanzania: A community perspective on global health