Freund, L. (2026). All watched over by machines of loving grace—AI and control, symbolic violence, and the hyperreal. AI & SOCIETY, 41(3), 1713–1724.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-025-02433-4
Open access: Yes
Notes: In this conceptual paper, Freund explores how AI systems are increasingly becoming “architects of social reality itself”—playing an ever more central role in sustaining and expanding existing structures of power and oppression. To do this, Freund draws on the work of Baudrillard, Bourdieu and Deleuze. More specifically, he draws three interconnected arguments about how these systems are shaping reality:
- Drawing on Deleuze, “via continuous modulation (. . . ), AI systems establish power through constant adjustment of behavior and perception, creating an algorithmic dispositif that shapes social reality.”
- Drawing on Braudillard: “as meta-simulacra, AI generating hyperreal environments that precede and shape human experience rather than merely representing it.”
- Drawing on Bourdieu: through symbolic violence (. . .) AI systems perpetuate and reinforce power structures through the subtle imposition of categories and decision-making processes that are presented as universal but remain deeply embedded in specific social contexts.
