HOW MUCH IS IT WORTH TO BE A SUBJECT?: EFFECTS OF SUBJECT ON THE CONSTITUTION OF THE ARCHIVE OF/IN X

Abstract

In this work, which is part of the theoretical-methodological-analytical framework of Pecheuxtian materialist discourse analysis, I aim to comparatively analyze the functioning of automated discourses linearized by Grok, X's artificial intelligence, with a view to questioning the imaginaries (re)produced about the subject-user and their sustaining effects. To this end, I start with the question “What is dictatorship?” asked under different circumstances: in a personal profile and in a profile created for research, using both the free and paid versions of X. From a theoretical point of view, I mobilize notions such as archive and subject, which guide the way the corpus is viewed, articulating theoretical notions with analytical reflections. Throughout the analyses, I identify that Grok makes distinct gestures of reading about the subject-user and about the archive it mobilizes for the statement-command, in order to strain the limits of repetition and paraphrase in its formulations.