What does a surplus of interpretations consume?

Andrew Buzzell

Keywords: hermeneutical injustice; generative AI; interpretive technologies; epistemic autonomy; social epistemology

TL;DR: A position paper arguing that generative AI produces a surplus of interpretation that consumes culture, and sketching architectural conditions under which the surplus could support rather than displace cultural work.

Abstract: This position paper reframes critique of generative AI as a cultural technology. Where existing work diagnoses AI as a source of hermeneutical injustice, I argue that what a surplus of interpretation consumes is culture, the collective work through which interpretive resources are made and shared. I sketch three architectural commitments under which this surplus could scaffold rather than displace that work, and address the obvious objection from media studies that collective platforms have not historically dissolved influence elites.

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Submission Number: 51