Artificial intelligence as a transformer of society
Published on HivePostify by @rebe.torres12 · Sun Sep 06 2026
Artificial intelligence as a transformer of society
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Artificial intelligence is being touted as a technology capable of transforming virtually every area of society; however, for Harvard historian Jill Lepore, this transformation carries a significant risk: allowing technology companies to assume roles that traditionally belong to individuals and democratic institutions.
Lepore describes this process using a provocative phrase—a sort of "industrial creation of humans." She presented this argument while appearing on The New York Times podcast Hard Fork, where she discussed the concept of the "artificial state"—the subject of her new book, The Rising Fall of the Artificial State. This idea does not imply that machines are literally creating human beings; rather, Lepore uses the comparison to describe a society in which people are increasingly classified, segmented, and isolated by digital systems controlled by major corporations.
According to her, some functions that previously relied directly on institutions, communities, or human interactions are being transferred to technology platforms—a shift already evident in relatively common situations. When someone calls a company for assistance, for instance, they may first encounter an AI chatbot; furthermore, information, news, political debates, and even election-related recommendations are increasingly channeled through digital platforms.
For Jill Lepore, the fundamental question is simple: Who decided that this is how people should live? The concept of the "artificial state" describes a situation in which social decisions and functions are mediated not by the direct consent of the people, but by machines—and those machines belong to private companies.
The historian emphasizes that this artificial state does not yet fully exist; the argument is that parts of it are being gradually constructed as companies gain control over an increasing share of the infrastructure used for communication and the flow of information. This transformation began prior to the current generation of artificial intelligence. Radio, television, personal computers, the internet, and social media had already profoundly altered the way information circulates, but AI systems can accelerate that process.
Today, artificial intelligence models can generate political content, select information, answer questions, and participate in decisions that previously required some form of human interaction; at the same time, these technologies can process vast amounts of data collected on users, thereby expanding the scope for monitoring. It is against this backdrop that Apple draws a comparison to industrial manufacturing.
In a previously published New Yorker article, she described the "artificial state" as a form of industrialization of public life characterized by the classification and segmentation of people, isolation, and the weakening of human communities. Jill Lepore notes that these systems can generate information, select what is presented, interpret questions, and directly assist in decision-making; thus, her critique is not simply an opposition to the development of artificial intelligence.
The central issue lies in who controls these systems and to what extent decisions affecting society should be delegated to them.
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Sorry for my Ingles, it's not my main language. The images were taken from the sources used or were created with artificial intelligence
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