AI as Social Actor

Abstract

Given the social and political influence of social networks, which are often structured and organized by what today falls under the umbrella term artificial intelligence, we seek to define this new social frame. Most importantly, we ask how to frame this new social sphere in current theory and how it can be conceptualized for social sciences. However, this is not possible without constructing a logical frame for a problem as deeply entwined with the modern history of logic as AI is. We will therefore frame the problem of AIs as social actors within the logical discourse that Lacanian psychoanalysis opened. Our analysis shows that the inherent indeterminate that constitutes the psychoanalytic subject is omitted from AI-supplanted identities. Logical analysis also allows us to discern a specific mode of subjectivation that is made much more prominent through the normalization of phenomena like echo chambers and online identities.