Byung-Chul Han: Psychopolitics and The Burnout Society
https://youtu.be/BX-FK_Rmzjc

#ByungChulHan #Psychopolitics #Burnout #Neoliberalism #Philosophy

"The emergence of personal AI agents represents a form of cognitive control that moves beyond blunt instruments of cookie tracking and behavioral advertising toward a more subtle form of power: the manipulation of perspective itself. Power no longer needs to wield its authority with a visible hand that controls information flows; it exerts itself through imperceptible mechanisms of algorithmic assistance, molding reality to fit the desires of each individual. It’s about shaping the contours of the reality we inhabit.

This influence over minds is a psychopolitical regime: It directs the environments where our ideas are born, developed, and expressed. Its power lies in its intimacy—it infiltrates the core of our subjectivity, bending our internal landscape without us realizing it, all while maintaining the illusion of choice and freedom. After all, we are the ones asking AI to summarize that article or produce that image. We may have the power of the prompt, but the real action lies elsewhere: the design of the system itself. And the more personalized the content, the more effectively a system can predetermine the outcomes."

https://www.wired.com/story/ai-agents-personal-assistants-manipulation-engines/

#AI #GenerativeAI #AIAgents #Algorithms #AlgorithmicGovernance #PsychoPolitics #AIEthics #Manipulation

This from "Psychopolitics - Neoliberalism and New Technologies of Power" by Byung-Chul Han:

"Neoliberalism makes citizens into consumers. The freedom of the citizen yields to the passivity of the consumer. As consumers, today's voters have no real interest in politics -- in actively shaping the community. They possess neither the will nor the ability to participate in communal, political action (1/)
#neoliberalism #politics #democracy #consumerism #psychopolitics