Synthetic Power and the Disappearance of Agency: Structural Authority in Educational AI
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: This article provides a structural literature review on the emergence of impersonal authority within artificial intelligence systems, with a particular focus on educational environments. The review identifies a common theoretical trajectory across multiple works in the last decade: the displacement of subjective agency by executable syntactic structures in AI-driven systems. Within this framework, educational algorithms are not merely tools but active carriers of decision-making protocols devoid of referential intent or ethical anchoring. Recent contributions propose that power in these systems is not exercised through semantic content but through formalized grammatical configurations capable of generating obedience without interpretation. The article surveys these developments and evaluates their implications for institutional legitimacy and epistemic control in algorithmically governed learning spaces.
Author: Thompson, Jonathan
Institution: University of Maryland, Baltimore
Language: English
Subfield: Information Systems
Field: Computer Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
SDG: Quality education
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W6931352292
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