Synthetic media and computational capitalism: towards a critical theory of artificial intelligence

2025-03-19

AI & SOCIETY

AI Summary

This paper addresses the crises of authenticity, subjectivity, and value reconfiguration precipitated by AI’s deep integration into cultural production. Responding to the blurring of human–machine authorship boundaries and the emergence of novel “algorithmic situations” through synthetic media, the study integrates Frankfurt School critical theory, computational ideology analysis, and an interdisciplinary constellation methodology. It introduces three original concepts—“inversion,” “automated mimetic production,” and “constellation analysis”—and for the first time theorizes the “post-conscious” condition along with its political-economic implications. Moving beyond techno-centric approaches, the work establishes a novel critical paradigm for AI under computational capitalism. It delivers a theoretically rigorous yet operationally applicable framework for technology philosophy and digital humanities, systematically advancing critical theory’s foundational response to algorithmically mediated existence.

Technology Category

• Humans and AI: Understanding People, Theories, Concepts and Methods
• Philosophy and Ethics of AI: AI & Epistemology
• Cognitive Modeling & Cognitive Systems: Computational Creativity

Application Category

• Economics, Online Markets and Human Computation: Economic ramifications for generative AI infrastructure and applications
• Social Networks and Social Media: Generative AI / large language models and their impact on social systems
• Responsible Web: Human-perceived consequences of algorithmic deployment on the web

Abstract

This paper develops a critical theory of artificial intelligence, within a historical constellation where computational systems increasingly generate cultural content that destabilises traditional distinctions between human and machine production. Through this analysis, I introduce the concept of the algorithmic condition, a cultural moment when machine-generated work not only becomes indistinguishable from human creation but actively reshapes our understanding of ideas of authenticity. This transformation, I argue, moves beyond false consciousness towards what I call post-consciousness, where the boundaries between individual and synthetic consciousness become porous. Drawing on critical theory and extending recent work on computational ideology, I develop three key theoretical contributions, first, the concept of the Inversion to describe a new computational turn in algorithmic society; second, automimetric production as a framework for understanding emerging practices of automated value creation; and third, constellational analysis as a methodological approach for mapping the complex interplay of technical systems, cultural forms and political economic structures. Through these contributions, I argue that we need new critical methods capable of addressing both the technical specificity of AI systems and their role in restructuring forms of life under computational capitalism. The paper concludes by suggesting that critical reflexivity is needed to engage with the algorithmic condition without being subsumed by it and that it represents a growing challenge for contemporary critical theory.

Problem

• Analyzing AI's role in blurring human-machine cultural production boundaries
• Exploring algorithmic condition's impact on authenticity and consciousness
• Developing critical methods for AI's influence under computational capitalism

Innovation

• Introduces the concept of the algorithmic condition
• Develops automimetric production for automated value creation
• Proposes constellational analysis for mapping AI systems