Culture in the age of generative artificial intelligence: from the formation of significance to humanistic subjectivity

Abstract

The article examines the transformation of culture under the conditions of digitalization and the development of generative artificial intelligence from the perspective of the problem of preserving and reproducing humanistic subjectivity. It is argued that the digital transformation of culture involves not only changes in the ways cultural content is created, preserved, disseminated, and consumed. Digital systems are becoming increasingly involved in the selection, ranking, structuring, and generation of information and, therefore, are capable of mediating the formation of the field of significance that precedes the direction of attention, distinction, meaning-making, and human choice. The aim of the study is to provide a philosophical and methodological understanding of culture as an environment for the formation of significance and to identify the conditions under which human interaction with generative artificial intelligence contributes to the development, rather than the functional substitution, of humanistic subjectivity. The interrelation “cultural environment – formation of significance – attention – distinction – meaning-making – choice – action” is proposed as a procession sequence through which culturally mediated reality becomes involved in the formation of subjectivity. It is shown that, in the digital environment, technological mediation occurs even before the moment of conscious choice, since algorithmic and generative systems can participate in determining what enters a person’s field of attention and acquires significance for them. In this regard, the problem of authorship in culture expands: the crucial question concerns not only who creates a cultural product, but also who participates in shaping the field of significance within which a person distinguishes, makes sense of, and chooses. The principle of human-dimensionality is proposed as a criterion for the humanistic character of the digital transformation of culture, according to which technologies should expand the space for human distinction, creativity, and meaning-making rather than substitute for these capacities. It is argued that the preservation of humanistic subjectivity in the culture of the age of generative artificial intelligence depends on the human capacity to recognize the mechanisms through which significance is formed, to preserve the sovereignty of attention, the authorship of meanings, and responsibility for one’s own choices. From this perspective, generative artificial intelligence can function as an environment for the cognitive and cultural expansion of human capacities, provided that human beings retain authorship of their own becoming.