Realist political theory and digital technology

The recent literature on technological systems based on artificial intelligence and algorithms limits consequences of this process to ethics or the aspect of communication. Most normative works dealing with the aspect of AI and its social implications end in clarifying moral statement about AI or algorithmization (Coeckelbergh 2020; Floridi 2023). The recurring element of ethical queries of digital technology reflects the uncertainty of whether machines are extrinsic to human power or whether we can attribute moral responsibility to AI. Political theorist can easily identify the problematic silent assumption that digital technologies as we know them today are not political entities (Winner 1980; Berg, Staemmler, Thiel 2022). Algorithms and AI as a result of human labour should be seen as an apparatus of power, domination and conflict, and cannot be seen as a neutral to aspects of ideology critique. The context of political is not just artificial intelligence, but the entire process of digitalization which is not a force of nature that sweeps us up in its wake, but a product of human practice. It is as amenable to economic innovation as it is to state regulation and can also be the object of civic design. So the aim of this paper is therefore to explore the autonomy of the political realm when we discuss problem of digitalisation. Here, I introduce the perspective of realist political theory which is responsible of examining political normativity of digital technologies, in particular various sources of generative AI: ChatGPT or Stable Diffusion. By exploring outcome of generative AI we can trace ideological context of algorithmic arrangement. As a result it will map the ideological content of AI and political attribution of algorithms used to create those technological systems. Generative AI tools are still in their prime, but already we have to recognize those as a complex systems that will be responsible for tasks performed nowadays by humans. Moreover these machines will be responsible for shaping the content of public sphere by providing (social media) and redistributing (algorithmic governance) political values.