This paper examines the cultural construction of artificial intelligence (AI) as purely logical, critiquing its portrayal as an objective intelligence that reinforces Enlightenment ideals while obscuring its material conditions. Using media theory, science and technology studies (STS), and posthumanist critiques, this study explores how AI’s spectacle fosters perceptions of machine rationality despite its human biases and capitalist imperatives.

Drawing on Guy Debord’s theory of the spectacle, this paper argues that AI’s framing as disembodied logic mirrors medieval epistemologies, where knowledge was mediated through images and controlled by elites. Debord’s framework is essential to understanding AI’s role in late capitalism, as it reveals how spectacle replaces direct engagement with reality, producing an illusion of objectivity that conceals underlying economic and political interests. AI functions within this logic, presenting itself as neutral and autonomous while reinforcing existing power structures.

While some scholars describe this shift as "technofeudalism", this paper contends that feudal structures have not re-emerged. Instead, technofeudalism operates as an ideology that masks capitalism’s persistence while reshaping digital labor and authority. Through critical discourse analysis of AI narratives in corporate rhetoric, media, and policy documents, this study demonstrates how AI’s spectacle legitimizes new epistemic hierarchies under the guise of rationality and progress. By applying Debord’s concept of spectacle to contemporary AI discourse, this research highlights the ideological mechanisms through which AI sustains power, contributing to debates on digital capitalism, automation, and the politics of knowledge in the 21st century.

Authors:
Tanner Yocom, University of West London, United Kingdom

About the Presenter(s)
Mr. Tanner Yocom is a Vice Chancellor scholar at the University of West London, focusing on the intersections of technology, culture, and political economy. His current project, The Future Now, is about utopia and the MCU.

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