AI narratives - between superintelligence and power Hype Studies Conference Jacek Mańko Kozminski University, Warsaw 10-12th September, Barcelona
My background •Cognitive science •Critical AI studies •Science and technology studies/hype studies
AI Hype –an original sin that starts with a name •„Artificial intelligence was just the name of a seminar in 1956 that somehow also became the name of a sprawling research field and the various technologies that emerged from it. That the various technologies (…) are all referred to as AI is mostly a historical accident and/or marketing. We could have used a different term or several different terms.” (Julian Togelius, Artificial General Intelligence, 2024)
AI Hype –an original sin that starts with a name •„Though the field’s founding fathers thought the path to re-creating the brain would be a short one, it turned out to be very long. Their original sin was that they called their field “artificial intelligence.” This gave decades of onlookers the impression that scientists were on the verge of re-creating the powers of the brain when, in reality, they were not.” (Cade Metz, Genius Makers, 2021)
AI Hype –an original sin that starts with a name •Initially, AI aimed to computationally simulate intelligent behaviours, like playing logical games, •Yet AI founders like John McCarthy, Herbert Simon, and Marvin Minsky boldly envisioned "fully intelligent machines" or ones with human-level intelligence.
The hype lives on •OpenAI, with its 2022 ChatGPT release, revived narratives of AI "surpassing humans,” “smarter than humans”, referencing vague concepts like artificial general intelligence (AGI) and "superintelligence," which loosely suggest technology exceeding human intellect. OpenAI Charter https://openai.com/charter/
My study –research question •My study aims to examine contemporary forms of narratives regarding both the current state and further development of AI (a.k.a Whats going on with all that AGI-nonsense?) •Some preliminary research questions include: •How (and if) do the largest companies in the AI industry define AI? (or the goal of AI) –what do they mean when they talk about AI? •How do they envision the further development of AI? •In particular, do they refer to any societal consequences? •Does the further development of AI translate into the way these companies operate on a business level?
My study –research question •I applied qualitative content analysis method (supported by virtual ethnography). •Data sources included press releases, statutes, charters and other public documents issued by the largest AI companies OpenAI, Anthropic, Microsoft, Google/DeepMind, Meta, and xAI were analyzed •As well as public statements, talks, interviews, tweets etc made by the management/C-level execs of these companies. •The data covers the period from the public release of ChatGPT in November 2022 until the end of 2024.
Future of AI –business expansion “Whether we burn 500 million a year or 5 billion or 50 billion a year I don't care I genuinely don't as long as we can I think stay on a trajectory where eventually we create way more value for society than that and as long as we can figure out a way to pay the bills like We're making AGI it's going to be expensive it's totally worth it.” (Sam Altman, CEO OpenAI)
Current AI capabilities Future of AI development AI impact on society Business expansion
Discussion •Narrative about the AI companies serves as a tool for grabbing symbolic and imaginative power by shaping a specific vision of an A(G)I-determined future •This in turn is used to grab real political power and expanding their business operation •„all of this myth-making and rhetorical bluster is a just a narrative trick: the hidden object is not a technology, but a bid for power.” (Coldicutt, 2024) •In line with the results by Bareis & Katzenach (2021), Bareis (2024) and Rehak (2025)
Literature /10.1162/99608f92.562ff0f5 •Bareis, J., & Katzenbach, C. (2021). Talking AI into Being: The Narratives and Imaginaries of National AI Strategies and Their Performative Politics. Science Technology & Human Values, 47(5), 855–881. https://doi.or.1177/01622439211030007 •Bareis, J. (2024). Ask Me Anything! How ChatGPT Got Hyped Into Being. Preprint •Coldicutt, R. (2024). AI Safety Is a Narrative Problem. Harvard Data Science Review, Special Issue 5. ht •Metz, C. (2021). Genius makers: The mavericks who brought A.I. to Google, Facebook, and the world. Dutton.ps://doi •Rehak, R. (2025). AI Narrative Breakdown. A Critical Assessment of Power and Promise. FAccT ’25: Proceedings of the 2025 ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency, 1250–1260. https://doi.org/10.1145/3715275.3732083 •Togelius, J. (2024). Artificial general intelligence. The MIT Press.
AI narratives - between superintelligence and power with Jacek Mańko
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