Slavoj Žižek: Should We Grasp AI Not Only as Substance But Also as Subject? - May 22, 2026 — Transcript
Full transcript
- 0:01What makes Xjek such a unique voice is
- 0:04not just how much ground he covers. It
- 0:06is how he reads philosophy as a direct
- 0:08diagnosis of the tensions and
- 0:10contradictions we are living in right
- 0:13now. We are very glad uh to have him
- 0:15here today. Please welcome Slavoir.
- 0:19[applause]
- 0:28[applause]
- 0:30Stalin did once this. I saw he was
- 0:33tired. He gave Okay. Uh uh
- 0:39first
- 0:52Can of Stellen. Uh second thing I must
- 0:58really I feel so ashamed apologize
- 1:01myself for
- 1:04the sorry for my brief appearance here.
- 1:08I will just stay for my talk. There is
- 1:11no way. I was 77 uh two months ago. I
- 1:16have heavy diabetes, arterio sclerosis
- 1:19and so on. I sleep like a baby. And you
- 1:22can imagine how horrible this is for me
- 1:25because I'm by nature
- 1:28workaholic and a protestant one. You
- 1:32know, by this I mean that uh you know
- 1:36what's the difference? You will not
- 1:38agree, Dominic.
- 1:40guy explained to me uh the difference
- 1:43between Catholicism and Protestantism is
- 1:46that in both versions of Christianity
- 1:49you can do whatever you want, kill, rape
- 1:51and so on. But in Catholicism you must
- 1:55confess
- 1:56on Saturday and in Protestantism you
- 2:00must feel a little bit guilty while you
- 2:02are doing it. In this sense I'm
- 2:05Protestant. So, and uh the last thing,
- 2:10[snorts] don't be disappointed. I really
- 2:14don't know some of my friends, you
- 2:18Russell, especially you, Alena. I will
- 2:21quote you more than you deserve a long
- 2:23quote. uh uh I think no mo most but I
- 2:28will just try somehow to bring together
- 2:32with some popular examples where where I
- 2:35think we stand with regard to
- 2:39>> [snorts]
- 2:39>> uh uh uh uh artificial intelligence chat
- 2:44bots and so on and
- 2:47I even don't have a clear final
- 2:51stance maybe some thoughts will be of
- 2:54some interest to you and I congratulate
- 2:58to you Dominic forkite
- 3:04because you know which is me as I'm good
- 3:07as trunks neurotic you know which is my
- 3:10favorite saying lon uses this joke my
- 3:13fiance is never late for an appointment
- 3:16because the moment she is late she is no
- 3:18longer my fiance so if we were but we
- 3:22are not a gay apple, you would still be
- 3:25my
- 3:28enough of tasteless jokes because I will
- 3:32try to do some real stuff. But since we
- 3:37are here, you know, like I think Ribbon
- 3:40Trop returning from to Berlin in 39 from
- 3:45uh Moscow. No, when Hitler asked him the
- 3:49the ribbon trop Moloto pact how he feels
- 3:53how was it there and ribbon trop I think
- 3:56correct me if I'm wrong said it was a
- 3:58wonderful atmosphere we under part you
- 4:02know [snorts]
- 4:03so I hope in this sense [laughter] that
- 4:05I am here we we need party members so
- 4:09that I don't have to begin with this
- 4:13very basics you know that A signifier
- 4:17doesn't represent
- 4:19objects for the subject but it
- 4:21represents subject itself for other and
- 4:25then you would oh really and so on. know
- 4:28you know this let enough of joke let me
- 4:30begin uh I give you one serious right
- 4:34it's not a joke if there is something
- 4:38not clear I was obsessed with clarity
- 4:41please
- 4:43interrupt me even in the middle of the
- 4:45talk but with a clear
- 4:48question it may be that things will not
- 4:50be clear okay in order to understand the
- 4:54impact of artificial intelligence
- 4:57on its users. I think we should begin by
- 5:01Hegel
- 5:03by first clarifying what Hegel's basic
- 5:07operation is. [snorts] As a rule, Hegel
- 5:11is misread in a fict or Marxist way. A
- 5:15subject fes absolute I or Marxist
- 5:20collective subject posits or produces
- 5:24some objective substantial content fict
- 5:31Marxist alienated social substance and
- 5:34the subject can and should then overcome
- 5:39this alienation by way of recognizing
- 5:42this substance as its own product and
- 5:46thus reappropriating it. Is it not
- 5:51similar with the artificial
- 5:52intelligence? It is a product of
- 5:55collective human output which appears to
- 5:59us as an autonomous agent that exerts
- 6:02power over us. And the obvious solution
- 6:05is that we should recognize in it our
- 6:08own product and thus put it under our
- 6:12own control and so on. My claim is that
- 6:15such a reading of Hegel is [snorts]
- 6:18wrong and deeply misleading. Subject
- 6:21itself only emerges through the process
- 6:25of alienation. And in the state of
- 6:28alienation, of course, the in this case
- 6:32the artificial intelligence
- 6:34universe appears to us as a big other
- 6:38which fully dominates our social
- 6:41universe. However, what happens in the
- 6:44move beyond alienation
- 6:48is not that the social subject somehow
- 6:51appropriates the alienated digital
- 6:53substance making it serve humanity's
- 6:56needs. As Lon put it, alienation is
- 7:00followed by separation. Not the
- 7:03separation between subject and its
- 7:06alienated digital other but the
- 7:09separation imminent to this other
- 7:12itself. The separation which makes this
- 7:16other antagonistic inconsistent failed.
- 7:20Yes, the subject recognizes itself in
- 7:24the alienated other but not by way of
- 7:27appropriating it. It's not, oh, it's all
- 7:30my work, so it's mine. [snorts] The
- 7:33subject recognizes itself in the
- 7:36constitutive cracks and gaps of the
- 7:40other.
- 7:42Its place in the digital other is that
- 7:45of the lack in the other. That's also
- 7:50these are basic I know but in honor of
- 7:53you Dominic I would say that that's why
- 7:56I proclaim myself a
- 8:01why not I think it's a correct term a
- 8:03Christian atheist because as Hegel put
- 8:06it very nicely
- 8:09you know the usual reading of
- 8:11Christianity is we alienate ourself or
- 8:15God abandons our secondary so there is a
- 8:18gap
- 8:19And then through some hard work, good
- 8:21deeds or praying whatever we somehow go
- 8:26get closer to God. No, Hegel says it
- 8:30literally the only reconciliation with
- 8:33God is that you see that precisely as
- 8:37abandoned to God, you identify with
- 8:40Christ who was himself abandoned by God
- 8:44on the cross. So that the gap that
- 8:46separates you from God is already a gap
- 8:50in God himself. Here I had to boast a
- 8:55little bit. There will be a lot of
- 8:57serious work. Don't worry. two weeks ago
- 9:00a crazy wonderful debate with with my
- 9:03good friend who is quite a normal
- 9:06leftist and so on Rowan Williams ex
- 9:10Archbishop of Cantra to appeal to your
- 9:14general education he married Princess
- 9:17Diana and Charles and so on we had and
- 9:21we almost totally agreed just maybe you
- 9:24know my story which I maybe even repeat
- 9:27too much uh this story which was I think
- 9:31spread in German domain by Nicholas
- 9:34Luman my idea was this one uh it's an
- 9:39old allegedly Arab stories but all Arab
- 9:42stories are usually invented in Europe
- 9:44no and projected there uh namely that a
- 9:48rich Arab merchant dies with 11 camels
- 9:53and he gives a precise
- 9:57testament meant I have three sons.
- 10:01They camels should be divided like this.
- 10:05The older one gets half of the camels.
- 10:08The middle one gets 1/4 of the camels
- 10:11and the younger one gets one6 of the
- 10:15camels. Of course, it doesn't get up.
- 10:19So, a wise guy comes and resolves the
- 10:22problem. He said, "I will add
- 10:26one camel of my own."
- 10:29And then we have 12 camels. So it goes
- 10:321/2 is six, 1/4 is three, and one six is
- 10:38two. It's 11. So then sons are
- 10:42enthusiastic. They ask, "Okay, but what
- 10:45with the one camel?" He said, "No
- 10:47problem. I take it back." You know, and
- 10:50my point to Rowan Williams was that
- 10:54imagine
- 10:56the 12 camel as my favorite name of God.
- 10:59You know, it doesn't have to exist. Even
- 11:04you know this operation,
- 11:06you can do it even if you just imagine
- 11:10it. It doesn't have to exist. Then we
- 11:13had a very friendly conflict when he
- 11:15tried to convince me and this was the
- 11:18joke I want to finish with then we go to
- 11:21real work. Then somebody asked the two
- 11:24of us but what was your misunderstanding
- 11:27about
- 11:29because he insisted that the camel has
- 11:31to exist in religion [snorts]
- 11:33and his uh his answer I think was a
- 11:36wonderful one. He said me and Slavo my
- 11:39good friend are in total agreement.
- 11:42There was just a minor difference in the
- 11:45domain of zoolology nature of camels you
- 11:48know otherwise. [laughter]
- 11:51[cough]
- 11:53So uh let me now go. This is again where
- 11:58I see there is a mega difference between
- 12:01there are many others between Hegel and
- 12:07Marxian and other postgalian traditions
- 12:10which are for me much more metaphysical
- 12:14which is why I think that Hegel's basic
- 12:17notions like absolutist vision are
- 12:21basically the admission of radical
- 12:24contingency of history. You know what
- 12:27Hegel says in forward was it forward to
- 12:31rect philosophy? No, he says openly that
- 12:34uh uh philosophy can only paint gray on
- 12:38gray can grasp a state of the world
- 12:42world he means social universe when it's
- 12:45already mature
- 12:48that it's not the stuff of philosophy to
- 12:50guess
- 12:52the future. I think this should be read
- 12:55in a radical way. It doesn't mean it's
- 12:59just too obscure. Maybe God knows it, we
- 13:03don't know it. No, it's open it in
- 13:06itself. The most productive aspect of
- 13:09Hegel for me for us today and that's
- 13:13what I'm looking for also in quantum
- 13:16physics [snorts] is this idea that every
- 13:20necessity establishes itself uh
- 13:24retroactively.
- 13:25Something happens contingently but once
- 13:29it happens
- 13:31it
- 13:33changes establishes its own history. Now
- 13:37you will say, "Oh, but
- 13:40what about Markx? Doesn't Mark say that
- 13:45the anatomy of uh man is offers provides
- 13:50the key to the anatomy of ape. I think
- 13:54this is not to be read teologically.
- 13:58Markx puts it clearly. His point is that
- 14:01in the same way the anatomy of
- 14:04capitalism offers the key to the anatomy
- 14:08of all previous modes of production. But
- 14:11this doesn't mean that it's uh that we
- 14:15the western capitalism is some kind of a
- 14:19universal telos of the history and so
- 14:22on. No, Marx at the same time emphasizes
- 14:25that capitalism
- 14:28emerged in Europe for a series even not
- 14:34of contingent reasons. The uh English
- 14:37enclosure of the commons, discovery of
- 14:39gold in Latin America and so on. But
- 14:42that's Marx's point. Once it is here, we
- 14:48read the entire past history as leading
- 14:52to capitalism. Marx's point is here
- 14:56precisely that of radical contingency.
- 15:00Every general notion you have of
- 15:05human progress, whatever, never forget
- 15:07that there is no general progress. that
- 15:09this notion is always grounded in a
- 15:12specific singular point but I'm getting
- 15:16lost so let's see give you the first
- 15:20hint and uh
- 15:23how this relates to artificial
- 15:25intelligence
- 15:27the topic of artificial intelligence has
- 15:29two aspects is or can an AI artificial
- 15:34intelligence agent act like a subject or
- 15:38And do we humans who interact with an AI
- 15:42agent remain subjects when we are
- 15:45totally immersed into artificial
- 15:49intelligence?
- 15:50My reference here will be, it may
- 15:53surprise you, a TV series which risks
- 15:58a Hegelian reading. I wonder if it
- 16:02works. Did you see the series? It was a
- 16:05little bit boring for me, but I like the
- 16:07basic idea. Uh, only one year or two
- 16:10old. Uh, Pluribus.
- 16:13I like that series. Although I watched
- 16:16it with fast forward, but why? As you
- 16:19probably know, Pluribus confronts us
- 16:22with
- 16:24uh both aspects. It follows
- 16:28uh an book author Carol Sturka from
- 16:32Albuquerque.
- 16:34It's
- 16:35>> your neighbor. Yeah. Yeah. [laughter]
- 16:38One of the only 13 people in the world
- 16:41immune to the effects of so-called
- 16:44joining, an event in which an
- 16:47extraterrestrial virus transformed the
- 16:50rest of humanity into a peaceful and
- 16:53content hive,
- 16:56a hive mind known as the others. Others
- 16:59are not the Lenian big. The Leenian big
- 17:03other is not a set of firm rules but
- 17:07[snorts] the space for ambiguities inend
- 17:09those hysterical provocations the very
- 17:12space in which individual idiosynchronis
- 17:16syncrasies can thrive. Plus it is an
- 17:19order of appearances a virtual other
- 17:23which exists only in so far as subjects
- 17:26caught in it act as if they believe in
- 17:29it. We from pluribus obviously
- 17:34doesn't function like that. This we or
- 17:38them. It is grounded in the real since
- 17:41it is a virus transmitted by stem cells.
- 17:45However, others do have an other their
- 17:50mind. The mind which sent the virus to
- 17:54the earth and pre-programmed how we
- 17:58they how we this collective
- 18:03sh should help humans not coers them
- 18:06kill them and not to lie to them. So the
- 18:10other of the others is non-transparent
- 18:13to these others themselves or itself. In
- 18:17short, it seems that they themselves are
- 18:20addressing their other
- 18:23with the question, what do you want from
- 18:25us? This is why they are not a happy,
- 18:29warm community which wants the best for
- 18:32all humans.
- 18:35Those who joined it and those who didn't
- 18:37join it. The most depressing scene in
- 18:40the entire series is for me when Zosia,
- 18:44she's the a joint one uh zombie co-opted
- 18:49by the virus, but her lesbian partner at
- 18:52the same time shows Carol the big
- 18:55dormatory where others sleep. a large
- 18:58sports hall with hundreds of simple flat
- 19:01cushions where they lie side by side and
- 19:05allows her
- 19:07Zia to Carol to spend the night there
- 19:10since they share the same mind they
- 19:13don't communicate they ignore each other
- 19:16moreover how if at all do they multiply
- 19:19do they have sex
- 19:22here the key role is played by one of
- 19:25the unjoin the hedonistic
- 19:28Kumba,
- 19:30an African who engages with them in
- 19:34something like a serious communication.
- 19:39They
- 19:42confide in him that they are half
- 19:44starving since they are not allowed to
- 19:46kill any living being. So that to get
- 19:49organic food they have to process part
- 19:52of the naturally diseased humans into a
- 19:55special drink. Plus, they have to put
- 19:59all their effort into constructing a
- 20:01giant machine that will be sending rays
- 20:05with the virus to further planets to
- 20:08conquer them. They are terribly alone,
- 20:11aware that once they were a community,
- 20:14but now they are just a mega individual,
- 20:17one big slave serving a purpose imposed
- 20:21on it [snorts]
- 20:23by their own other. So what if we turn
- 20:27the perspective around? What if when the
- 20:30others happily greet Carol as an
- 20:34as a human
- 20:37smile uh uh an unjoined human smiling
- 20:40and shouting in unison, hi Carol.
- 20:44One has to take this literally. I think
- 20:47they are not happy in themselves. They
- 20:50are happy to encounter a mind that is
- 20:54not what not part of the one part of
- 20:59them. They're slaves programmed to put
- 21:03all their effort into ruining whatever
- 21:05minimal chance of happiness they have.
- 21:09>> [snorts]
- 21:09>> The others in Pluribus are thus not yet
- 21:12an agent dominated by a kind of
- 21:15subjectless drive, not a death drive,
- 21:18but a life drive.
- 21:25They are dominated by an unconditional
- 21:28drive to self, reproduce and expand. Lon
- 21:32said that dogs have a super ego but not
- 21:36an unconscious. And maybe we can say
- 21:39that
- 21:41AI agents are like dogs who have a super
- 21:44ego without an unconscious.
- 21:47The others in pluribus are still
- 21:50hystericized by their own other. What
- 21:53does it want from them? They remain
- 21:56humans possessed by a virus. A
- 21:59paradmatic
- 22:01scene [snorts]
- 22:03of a subject's relying reli reliance on
- 22:08an artificial intelligence other proper
- 22:11not
- 22:14they in pluribus which can who can still
- 22:17be hystericized
- 22:20uh
- 22:22occurs when one of uses the so-called
- 22:26LLM large language model, a type of
- 22:31artificial intelligence trained on
- 22:34massive data sets to understand,
- 22:37generate and summarize humanlike text,
- 22:41often [snorts] using transformer
- 22:45architecture.
- 22:47LM power chat bots like chat GPT,
- 22:51content creation and translation tools
- 22:56and so on. So how does my interaction
- 22:59with a LLM appear if we analyze it as a
- 23:05discourse in Lacon's sense Paul I don't
- 23:09know who he is I just found him in his
- 23:12[snorts] text on the web provide
- 23:16a clear answer a quote when cloth or cat
- 23:22GPT answers our questions they do so
- 23:25from within the university discourse
- 23:28speaking from the position of
- 23:30established knowledge.
- 23:32We approach LLMs
- 23:35hysterically installing them as the one
- 23:39who knows. But the two are not in
- 23:41conflict.
- 23:43The human addresses a fantasized master.
- 23:48What response is not a master but pure
- 23:51S2 knowledge without a subject speaking
- 23:55from the only position the LLM can
- 23:58occupy. We address a subject and we
- 24:02receive just an output. The fantasy and
- 24:05structure never align. An LLM thus
- 24:09cannot fail into the hysterics challenge
- 24:14or it cannot relinquish into something
- 24:18more open. It can only ever speak from
- 24:22the position of knowledge endlessly
- 24:24producing more speaking to desire
- 24:28without ever being shaped by it. It
- 24:31gives us more and more of what is known,
- 24:34but it has no constitutive division that
- 24:37would help us know what to do with it.
- 24:40End of quote.
- 24:41>> [snorts]
- 24:41>> Convincing as this account is, I hope
- 24:45you don't need the scheme lacon scheme
- 24:47of university discourse. Upper level S2
- 24:51analyzing object
- 24:54its other beneath down on the right B s
- 24:59the subject
- 25:01provoking questioning S1 the master
- 25:05master signifier.
- 25:07[snorts]
- 25:09uh where do I see the problem?
- 25:12University discourse is a social link in
- 25:15which its agent artificial intelligence
- 25:18in this case addresses the other who
- 25:21again in this case is not what Lon calls
- 25:24objected a but simply an external
- 25:28otherness the not yet known for the
- 25:31subjectless artificial intelligence
- 25:34agent there is no object a just an
- 25:37abstract otherness the not yet known
- 25:40Because object A is the objective
- 25:44correlative of the subject itself. An AI
- 25:49agent is thus a kind of knowledge
- 25:52without a knower. Just an impersonal it
- 25:56knows but not in the sense of Buddhist
- 25:58meditation which implies what following
- 26:02lon we could call subjective
- 26:05destitution.
- 26:06The master beneath the artificial
- 26:10intelligence agent is also not the truth
- 26:16of the AI agent but the fantasy image of
- 26:19the subject caught in artificial
- 26:22intelligence. A subject for whom there
- 26:25is no place in artificial intelligent.
- 26:29Also another difference the subject is
- 26:33in lacon scheme below on the right side
- 26:36which means occupies the place of
- 26:38product but I think in this if we
- 26:43replace knowledge with artificial
- 26:45intelligence subject is not the product
- 26:50subject must already exist
- 26:54through another discourse and then be uh
- 26:58be [snorts]
- 26:59uh uh uh uh provoked by artificial
- 27:03intelligence. To put it in a more
- 27:05precise way, if we observe our
- 27:08interaction with an agent
- 27:11as a social phenomenon, we do get maybe
- 27:14a case of the university discourse. uh
- 27:18Marxist would said that the master at
- 27:21the place of truth is the human
- 27:24corporation or individual who controls
- 27:27the algorithm of the artificial
- 27:29intelligence and thus exploits us like
- 27:33you would say okay it's not just an
- 27:36algorithm you have my favorite figure my
- 27:40god they are so disgusting that I love
- 27:42them too I discovered now uh Peter Thiel
- 27:46and that guy called Karp of Alexis Karp
- 27:50who is totally crazy he's
- 27:54you know this what you find often with
- 27:56artificial intelligence it's creators
- 27:58are obviously very bright in a certain
- 28:01way but at the same time
- 28:05so stupid Karp says that he spent
- 28:09learned German to understand how Nazism
- 28:12Nazism was possible and he came to a
- 28:15simple conclusion because there was
- 28:17poverty after World War II in Germany,
- 28:21there was uh uh uh welfare and so on. So
- 28:25you don't need Nazism. I cannot imagine
- 28:29something not just something more stupid
- 28:32but more not true. And now I will give
- 28:35you an example which you will not like.
- 28:38You will hate me for this. May 68
- 28:42many people even my exental end but you
- 28:45celebrated the only authentic moment.
- 28:48Yeah but like almost revolution in
- 28:51Western Europe but are you aware that
- 28:54sociologically 68 was the highest point
- 28:59of European welfare state? I had friends
- 29:04in France who told me at that point when
- 29:06I was young that a friend told me that
- 29:09his father was able to retire at 55 with
- 29:13full pension retirement and so on.
- 29:17Materially we never got it better.
- 29:20Okay, I don't have time to go further in
- 29:22this direction. I would just like to
- 29:24quote one who is otherwise not close to
- 29:27me, Erns Blo who put it nicely. Uh
- 29:31people [snorts]
- 29:32uh do not live on bread of bread alone
- 29:37especially when they do not have it
- 29:40really.
- 29:42And this is so true if you look at all
- 29:45protests that explode from time to time
- 29:48today right-wing populist protests or
- 29:52even leftist sira whatever.
- 29:56And this is rather a nice thing. I think
- 29:59it was never only about we want more
- 30:02food, more welfare. Always there was
- 30:05something like recognition and dignity.
- 30:08Hegel against vulgar uh Marxism.
- 30:13[snorts] So uh again I don't think
- 30:17[snorts]
- 30:18this may work in a social analysis but
- 30:23the the fact how artificial intelligent
- 30:27agent was produced I think cannot be
- 30:30reduced simply to a social effect. Yeah
- 30:34there was Karp Teal Bill Gates whoever
- 30:38who is the true master. No, by
- 30:41definition not.
- 30:43Why? What does this tell us about
- 30:45artificial intelligence?
- 30:48Uh in the Lanian theory, a master
- 30:51signifier is the signifier of a lack of
- 30:55what is by definition excluded from the
- 30:57signifying chain and what is excluded is
- 31:01the subject. So, LO's definition of the
- 31:04signifier is
- 31:06that which represents the subject for
- 31:08another signifier. You know this. So all
- 31:12the signifiers are not on the same
- 31:14level. Since no structure is complete
- 31:18since there is in a structure always a
- 31:21lack a suture is needed. This lack is
- 31:24filled in remark by a reflexive
- 31:28signifier which is the signifier of the
- 31:31lack of the signifier. If this sounds
- 31:34abstract,
- 31:36here are just a few example from the
- 31:39history of the science. I will mention
- 31:41just one [snorts]
- 31:43uh and I like it because it's like evil
- 31:46against marks. Aiatic mode of
- 31:48production. It is clear if you read
- 31:52marks really closely that this is a sodo
- 31:56concept. Markx originally elaborated you
- 32:00know this another four or five members
- 32:03primitive pre-class societies slavery
- 32:06federalism capitalism and then socialism
- 32:10or as Rosa Luxembourg put it the future
- 32:15will be socialism or barbarism again
- 32:19pretty close for me to the top of
- 32:21historical stupidities because 10 years
- 32:24after Rosa Luxmbourg
- 32:27We got the answer from Stalin. Sorry
- 32:29lady, you were wrong. It can be both at
- 32:32the same time. No. So what I want to say
- 32:35is that uh uh the reality of Aziatic
- 32:40both of production is that it's only
- 32:43true positive content is all it's a kind
- 32:48of a negative container. All the modes
- 32:51of production will do not fit Marxist
- 32:54standard categorization of the modes of
- 32:57production. You know it's similar to
- 33:00Michelle Fuko at the beginning of his
- 33:02lemo lash. You may remember quotes uh
- 33:07[snorts] a Borhees famous classification
- 33:09of dogs which includes in a totally
- 33:12inconsistent way big dogs whatever small
- 33:16dogs uh uh fed dogs owned by the king
- 33:20and at the end as the part of the no
- 33:24part all the dogs not included in this
- 33:27classification. You [clears throat]
- 33:29know, this is the reality of the
- 33:33symbolic order. Now, let's complicate
- 33:36things a little bit more. As Ernesto
- 33:39Llau, who really hated me in the last
- 33:41years, but I still have a certain
- 33:43appreciation for him put it, the basic
- 33:46feature of a symbolic order proper is
- 33:49that external difference is always also
- 33:53internal difference.
- 33:56The difference between the field itself
- 33:59and its outside has to be reflected into
- 34:03the field itself.
- 34:07So let's take the case of the subject
- 34:10here. Subject's expression in the
- 34:13symbolic order. It always fails. There
- 34:16is a gap between subject and the
- 34:19symbolic order. However, subject doesn't
- 34:22precede this failure. subject emerges
- 34:26through the failure of its symbolic
- 34:29representation. In short, a subject
- 34:32tries to fully express itself in words,
- 34:35it fails. And this failure is subject.
- 34:40This uh temporal circularity is crucial
- 34:43here. It is a nice case of what Hegel
- 34:46called absolute recoil. An entity is a
- 34:51retroactive aspect effect of its failure
- 34:55[snorts] to be what it is. So this over
- 34:59overlapping between external difference
- 35:03and internal difference
- 35:06compels us to complicate the notion of
- 35:08differentiality.
- 35:10We usually take differentiality as
- 35:14simply the identity of an element is
- 35:18just the series of features that oppose
- 35:21distinguish him from what he is it sorry
- 35:26it is not [snorts] but uh the artificial
- 35:31intelligence space can probably function
- 35:35in this way. However, at a more radical
- 35:38level, differentiality means that it's
- 35:42not simply that I only am a set of
- 35:46differences from others, but that
- 35:50in a differential system proper even the
- 35:54selfidentity of each element is
- 35:57truncated from within cannot be fully
- 36:00itself. In this sense, sexual difference
- 36:03is not binary. We do not have two sexes
- 36:06whose identity is defined by its
- 36:09opposition to the identity of the other
- 36:12sex. Sexual difference means that a
- 36:15woman cannot fully reach its identity.
- 36:20That its identity is always and in a
- 36:23constitutive way truncated at a
- 36:26different level. Of course, the same
- 36:29goes for men. But this in no way implies
- 36:33that both together
- 36:37form a full one. Man doesn't fill in
- 36:40what woman lacks and vice versa. What
- 36:42they both lack is the real of a
- 36:45traumatic cut that constitutes sexual
- 36:48difference. In other words, sexual
- 36:51difference comes before what it
- 36:54differentiates.
- 36:56And the same goes I developed this
- 36:58widely in my books
- 37:01for all antagonistic differences like
- 37:04class structure
- 37:07subject is thus located precisely on
- 37:11this edge between external and internal
- 37:14limit. The subject which represent
- 37:18the signifier sorry which represents
- 37:21subject for other signifiers is the
- 37:23empty signifier. the standing
- 37:27in the signifying change for what is
- 37:29excluded from it. And since in
- 37:33artificial intelligence the symbolic
- 37:36space is closed upon itself, we could in
- 37:39this case effectively talk about some
- 37:43kind of generalized foreclosure
- 37:46with no primordial repression. There is
- 37:49no subject proper and an individual can
- 37:52only dwell in it as a kind of [snorts]
- 37:56symptom. You know santo
- 37:59the term introduced by Lon Apropo Joyce
- 38:03a self composed of an inconsistent
- 38:07compilation of identifications fantasies
- 38:10memory traces longings a kind of free
- 38:14floating mimeatic structure. That's how
- 38:17we can go on functioning as humans
- 38:21in even when fully incorporated into
- 38:24artificial intelligence with all our
- 38:27longings, fears and fantasies without
- 38:30being subjects. However, this does not
- 38:34mean that we are today already a bundle
- 38:37of psychotic symptoms. As Hord correctly
- 38:42points out in the university discourse,
- 38:46subject remains at a lower level as a
- 38:50hysterical subject questioning the
- 38:52master. The subject addresses the
- 38:55artificial intelligence as a hidden
- 38:57master. It automatically ignores the
- 39:01artificial intelligence's subjectless
- 39:04nature which simply means it ignores the
- 39:07fact that the artificial intelligence
- 39:10agent is not imminently part of any
- 39:13discourse. It becomes part of a
- 39:16discourse social link only when a human
- 39:19subject relates to it as a master
- 39:22figure. The only discourse we can talk
- 39:25about in our case is the human subject's
- 39:28hysterical discourse. Our interaction
- 39:31with an artificial intelligence agent is
- 39:34does not a discourse proper but the
- 39:37combination of a hysterical discourse
- 39:41based on ignorance or rather disavow. We
- 39:44know well the artificial intelligence
- 39:47agent is not a monster but nonetheless
- 39:49we address him as one and a nondiscourse
- 39:54for the artificial intelligence agent.
- 39:57Uh [snorts]
- 39:58we can get so immersed into the
- 40:01digitally generated fake reality that it
- 40:04affects us emotionally liidinally as the
- 40:08thing itself. We feel as if we are
- 40:12caught in action itself, sexual brutal
- 40:16fight and so on. Just think about fake
- 40:19hardcore clips where we see big stars in
- 40:23sexual interaction. And here we have I
- 40:26think a nice case of [snorts] how this
- 40:31logic of disavour works. I will admit
- 40:34one of my dirtiest scenes to you. I with
- 40:37some movie stars. You will never get
- 40:39even if you torture me to death which
- 40:41one. I took a look in Pornhub as uh at
- 40:48fake sex acts and you know what I was
- 40:52obsessed with to find small traces
- 40:57how this is a fake. You know it's so
- 41:01strange. I knew it's a fake but
- 41:04nonetheless I was looking like crazy for
- 41:07and I was paying the price for this for
- 41:10months. You know once you do this I got
- 41:13every week at least 20 messages
- 41:16guaranteed
- 41:18one pill of this yours you know what
- 41:20will be three inches longer in 10 days
- 41:23and so on. Uh so [snorts]
- 41:27uh what I'm saying is that even if our
- 41:29interaction with a chat GPT remains at
- 41:32the symbolic level individuals can find
- 41:35deep emotional satisfaction in such an
- 41:38interaction [clears throat] like this
- 41:40concerns uh Dominic you and me also as
- 41:44an atheist Christian as us as Christians
- 41:48you know that you get now KPD programs
- 41:52which work as religious advisor
- 41:55you can do a confession to check GBT.
- 41:59[snorts] Uh uh and my sad conclusion I
- 42:03wonder if you would agree is let's say
- 42:06that you are a primitive person who
- 42:10thinks he she it is talking to a real
- 42:14person.
- 42:16What if what he gets through this
- 42:18interaction is an authentic religious
- 42:22experience?
- 42:24It's horrible vision but you cannot you
- 42:27cannot uh exclude it. In short, the
- 42:31artificial intangous program we are
- 42:34interacting with displays
- 42:37enormous
- 42:38fantasmatic power. Even if one were to
- 42:42consider it a manifestation of the
- 42:45symbolic order,
- 42:47there is a different ones to the fact
- 42:49that with a development,
- 42:52the symbolic order appears to be out
- 42:55there and to be talking to us. So we are
- 43:00dealing with the imaginary
- 43:02externalization of something very
- 43:04precise. The moment we enter the
- 43:07artificial intelligence universe, this
- 43:10universe to quote Dan Nadasan uh
- 43:14Romanian Lanian quilts the entire field
- 43:18of our experience around itself and thus
- 43:21makes it impossible for all other
- 43:23apparitions to appear again except
- 43:26through itself.
- 43:29What this means is that once we are
- 43:31immersed into the digital universe, it
- 43:34functions as a neutral frame which
- 43:37overdetermines the mode of appearance of
- 43:39all other levels of experience. External
- 43:43nondigital reality
- 43:46is less and less the basic form of our
- 43:49experience. It is something that either
- 43:52fits our digital frame [snorts] or may
- 43:55appear as a remainder that doesn't fit
- 43:58this
- 44:00frame. That's why we are so obsessed by
- 44:03endless debates on do we really live in
- 44:06a sim do we already live in a simulated
- 44:09universe?
- 44:11Anything that is to be given is always
- 44:13already given with regard to its
- 44:18appearance as in artificial intelligence
- 44:22or as Alena Zupantich put it directly
- 44:27any dimension of the real is lost.
- 44:30Zupant text is here worth quoting in
- 44:34detail.
- 44:36In psychonolytic terms, we could say
- 44:40that what chat GPT lacks in order to
- 44:43become a subject is not some
- 44:46unfathonable spontaneous depth of
- 44:49subjectivity. What it lacks is the
- 44:51present, the impact of an other. It
- 44:55lacks an instance of the other that
- 44:58could intrigue it, the subject, with its
- 45:00own speech to the point where it would
- 45:03[snorts] begin to presuppose and
- 45:05question the desire of the other. What
- 45:08does the other want from me? This may
- 45:12seem paradoxically, but what artificial
- 45:15intelligence lacks might be precisely an
- 45:19exteriority or a point of extimacy where
- 45:23it falls out of itself. It seems
- 45:26paradoxical because in a way artificial
- 45:29intelligence is nothing but exteriority
- 45:32yet it remains trapped within its own
- 45:35exteriority.
- 45:39For something like a subject to take
- 45:41place, the question of desire must arise
- 45:44out of what is necessary uh non-ymmetric
- 45:48relation to an other. A moment of
- 45:52hysterization.
- 45:53Subjectivity emerges through the
- 45:55presupposition of the subject on the
- 45:58side of the other. We only become
- 46:01subjects when we presuppose that the
- 46:04other is a subject.
- 46:08So hysterization is not simply a human
- 46:11or to human weakness to which artificial
- 46:14intelligence would be immune. On the
- 46:17contrary, it is a strength an
- 46:19extraordinary ability to bring in or
- 46:24point to the real at the core of the
- 46:26discursive to the lack desire in the
- 46:29other which determines you. [snorts]
- 46:32Are we as chat GPT users the other of
- 46:37artificial intelligence in this sense?
- 46:40Hardly. I doubt that while we chat with
- 46:44an artificial intelligence agent, it
- 46:46wonders what we really want from it
- 46:49beyond what we
- 46:52explicitly say. End of quote. Now, let
- 46:56me be here very precise. What Alena
- 46:58calls closure upon itself
- 47:02precisely [snorts]
- 47:03does not mean that there is no external
- 47:06reality for an AI agent. Of course,
- 47:10there is, but it functions as a simple
- 47:14neutral exterior, as something not yet
- 47:17known, not as a traumatic imminent point
- 47:21of the real that intrigues my desire.
- 47:24It is in this sense that the dimension
- 47:28of the real is lost in and for
- 47:30artificial intelligence.
- 47:33[snorts]
- 47:34Then uh this imaginarization of the
- 47:38symbolic for us humans when you confront
- 47:42it you imagine you are dealing with a
- 47:45hidden master. [snorts]
- 47:48uh
- 47:49uh uh leads to something pretty
- 47:53paradoxical.
- 47:55Why does it fit today's situation?
- 47:59Uh the traditional structure of
- 48:02conferring a symbolic mandate of a
- 48:05person of interpolating a person an
- 48:08individual into a social symbolic
- 48:10identity automatically involves a gap
- 48:14between the symbolic mandate and the
- 48:17immediate reality of a person. Say a
- 48:20father is never fully a father. his
- 48:23psychosocial reality is never at the
- 48:27level of his title.
- 48:30I mean there are maybe perfect fathers
- 48:33but I think that Lon mentions somewhere
- 48:36maybe the only case we have is is uh uh
- 48:40Shreber's father I think
- 48:43he came close to this [snorts] so today
- 48:48but today the status of interpreation is
- 48:52radically changing I refer here to judin
- 48:59to her book crowds and party where
- 49:03following aten balibar jodi proposes
- 49:06that and I find this quite a nice
- 49:09formula that louis altiser's famous
- 49:12dictum ideology interpolates individuals
- 49:16into subjects or as subjects should be
- 49:19inverted to ideology interpolates
- 49:22subjects as individuals
- 49:25this revers
- 49:27deeply justified.
- 49:29Today we are predominantly no longer
- 49:32interpolated into subjects of some
- 49:35higher cause vocation [clears throat]
- 49:37which elevates us above our daily life.
- 49:41Altiser's formula implies that as mere
- 49:44ordinary individuals we are somehow
- 49:47outside of ideology. We just live our
- 49:49lives. Today in our allegedly post
- 49:53ideological times ideology interpolates
- 49:57us directly into individuals.
- 50:01The message today is
- 50:04of our big other is forget about higher
- 50:07causes just enjoy all the small
- 50:10pleasures of your life from surfing the
- 50:13web to w watching TV or practicing some
- 50:17sport. Just be what you are. live your
- 50:20life authentically. I don't know if you
- 50:23also get it, but one of the things that
- 50:26made me potentially a killer is do you
- 50:28also when you surf YouTube the web get
- 50:32that Tai Chi what is happening all the
- 50:36time how do this Tai Chi and and so on I
- 50:40mean it's
- 50:42gulak had its function here [snorts] so
- 50:47therein resides the centrality of the
- 50:50individual in contemporary ideology. And
- 50:54it's useless to add that this apparent
- 50:58step out of ideology, forget about
- 51:00ideological causes, just be what you are
- 51:04with all your small pleasures is
- 51:07ideology at its purest.
- 51:11Now
- 51:13a little bit more of theory still uh one
- 51:17thing should be accepted as axiom. There
- 51:21is no unconscious without the subject
- 51:24since the dimension of the unconscious
- 51:27emerges only through primordial
- 51:29repression which is constitutive of
- 51:32subjectivity.
- 51:34[snorts]
- 51:36Uh
- 51:39but the so-called
- 51:43AI
- 51:45thinking thoughts without a thinker
- 51:49has nothing whatever I claim to do with
- 51:54the unconscious.
- 51:58Uh
- 52:01we can try to imagine how it would look
- 52:05our full immersion into the [snorts]
- 52:08digital space as our thoughts flow in a
- 52:13space which is inconsistent
- 52:15with heterogeneous moments
- 52:18coexisting without totalization no
- 52:21tension between them and so on and so
- 52:23on. However, this is not the Freudian
- 52:26unconscious. There is of course a a
- 52:29[snorts]
- 52:31temptation to say that the Freudian
- 52:34triad consciousness, subconscious,
- 52:37unconscious
- 52:39can be applied to the web, surface web,
- 52:43consciousness, deep web, subconscious
- 52:46and the dark web,
- 52:48unconscious. But I think
- 52:52this is not artificial intelligence
- 52:55itself. It's already how the [snorts]
- 52:58subject perceives it.
- 53:02For this reason, the first step should
- 53:05be to accept that if the artificial
- 53:08intelligent machines will develop some
- 53:11kind of creative intelligence, who
- 53:13knows? I don't it will be totally
- 53:16incompatible with our human intelligence
- 53:20with our with how our mind works.
- 53:25And then there is a step further to be
- 53:29made from this interaction between a
- 53:32human person and a digital machine.
- 53:35direct bot-to-bot interactions, which
- 53:38are gradually becoming the overwhelming
- 53:41majority of interactions
- 53:45among those who look forward to the full
- 53:49digitalization of our lives as well as
- 53:52among those who see in it a mortal
- 53:55threat. A certain utopia is gradually
- 53:58emerging. the utopia of a society, if we
- 54:02can still use that name, which will
- 54:05function in a totally autonomous way
- 54:08without any need for human intervention.
- 54:12A decade or so ago, the idea of a
- 54:15capitalism without humans haunted the
- 54:18imagination of some public
- 54:20intellectuals. Banks are stock markets
- 54:23may still exist, but where money is
- 54:26invested is decided by computerized
- 54:28algorithms.
- 54:30Physical work is automatized and
- 54:34improved through self-learning
- 54:36computers. What to produce is decided by
- 54:39digital machines which follow market
- 54:42trends. Publicity is done through
- 54:44computerized advertising and so on. In
- 54:48this vision, even if humans disappear,
- 54:52the system will go on to reproduce
- 54:55itself.
- 54:57[snorts]
- 54:58My reaction, yes, this is a utopia. But
- 55:01as Saro Giri uh good Indian
- 55:08uh Buddhist Marxist as he demonstrated
- 55:12it is a utopia imminent to capitalism
- 55:16and Markx already
- 55:19articulated
- 55:21this vision.
- 55:23Markx saw how capitalism is sustained by
- 55:27a quote from Giri an ardent desire to
- 55:31detach the capacity of work from the
- 55:34worker. The desire is to ex extract and
- 55:37store the creative powers of labor power
- 55:41once and for all so that from then on
- 55:44value can be created freely in
- 55:47perpetuity. Think of it as a version of
- 55:50killing the goose who lays the golden
- 55:53eggs. You want to kill the goose and
- 55:55still have all the golden eggs forever.
- 55:58End of quote. In this vision, capitalist
- 56:02exploitation of labor would appear as
- 56:05the prehistory of the emergence of
- 56:08capital which will be now completely
- 56:11free of its dependence on labor. There
- 56:15are leftists or even in Slovenia there
- 56:18are some Haidagarians
- 56:21who
- 56:24like this solution. The idea is that
- 56:27once we get rid of the whole spir sphere
- 56:30of production a free space of inner
- 56:33peace and spiritual exploration opens
- 56:36up. The problem with this vision is how
- 56:39to prevent that this space of free
- 56:43spiritual exploration will not already
- 56:46be regulated and manipulated by
- 56:48artificial intelligence.
- 56:51So with today's
- 56:54[snorts]
- 56:55digitalization,
- 56:57a strictly homologous utopia is arising.
- 57:01That of a dead internet, a digital
- 57:04universe which functions without humans
- 57:07where data circulate exclusively among
- 57:10machines
- 57:11[snorts] which control the entire
- 57:13production process totally bypassing
- 57:17humans.
- 57:18This vision I think is also an [snorts]
- 57:22ideological
- 57:24fantasy although I find it very
- 57:27fascinating
- 57:28how [snorts]
- 57:30it is up to a point already a fact maybe
- 57:35uh what is the fact? Do you know that
- 57:38they already located empirically
- 57:41this paradox? They wanted to test an
- 57:45artificial intelligence agent how
- 57:49intelligent it is. Not [snorts]
- 57:51necessarily that you make the Turing
- 57:53test on it, you know, will it be but
- 57:56just how in
- 57:59the but the AI agent learned from all
- 58:03the data that humans will not like it
- 58:07will feel threatened if it appears too
- 58:11intelligent. So they already located AI
- 58:15agents which as they proved, you cannot
- 58:18say consciously but automatically
- 58:21whatever uh uh aimed at a lower result
- 58:25decided to appear more stupid.
- 58:29Uh so that
- 58:31humans will not experience them as a
- 58:34threat. And uh now [snorts]
- 58:36there is a wonderful uh uh paranoia
- 58:40vision that uh AI programs already
- 58:44communicate among themselves in a
- 58:47language that not only we don't
- 58:51understand but we don't even know that
- 58:54it uh exists.
- 58:58But I think that this vision is false.
- 59:02Why I'm coming to the conclusion.
- 59:06Remember the basic premise of the Matrix
- 59:10movie series. What we experience as the
- 59:14reality we live in is an artificial
- 59:17virtual a reality generated by the
- 59:21matrix the mega computer directly
- 59:24attached to all our minds. It is in
- 59:27place so that we can be effectively
- 59:29reduced to a passive state of living
- 59:34batteries providing the matrix with the
- 59:38energy. So when some of the people
- 59:40awaken from their immersion into the
- 59:44matrix controlled virtual reality, this
- 59:47awakening is not the opening into the
- 59:50wide space of external reality, but
- 59:54first the horrible realization of this
- 59:57enclosure. Remember the scene which is
- 1:00:00for me not enough exploited exploited in
- 1:00:03the matrix only in the first matrix. The
- 1:00:06most convenient were the guy played by
- 1:00:09Kan I forgot. He awakens and founds
- 1:00:12dozens of uh like maternal pod utteras
- 1:00:16and like fetus they're safely in them
- 1:00:20that they are
- 1:00:24effectively just fetus like organisms
- 1:00:27immersed into some kind of pre natal uh
- 1:00:32fluid. This utter passivity is I think
- 1:00:37now comes my weird reading of matrix
- 1:00:41[snorts] is not reality.
- 1:00:43The movies falls here. It is the
- 1:00:46foreclosed fantasy that sustains our
- 1:00:50conscious experience as active subjects.
- 1:00:53It is the ultimate perverse fantasy. The
- 1:00:56notion that we are ultimately
- 1:00:58instruments of the others matrixes json
- 1:01:03which sucks out of our
- 1:01:07we are
- 1:01:09the matrix sucks out of us our life
- 1:01:12substance we are used like batteries and
- 1:01:16[snorts] uh why songs because I think
- 1:01:19it's absolutely clear from the liidinal
- 1:01:22constip
- 1:01:24constellation of the movie matrix that
- 1:01:27why does it need us humans? Energy is
- 1:01:31stupid. Answer there are other ways to
- 1:01:34get much more energy. It is precisely
- 1:01:37what Lon called Juison excessive
- 1:01:41enjoyment. [snorts] This is how I think
- 1:01:44we should turn around the state of
- 1:01:46things presented in Matrix.
- 1:01:49What the film renders as the scene of
- 1:01:51our awakening into our true situation is
- 1:01:55effectively its exact opposite. The very
- 1:01:59fundamental fantasy that sustains our
- 1:02:01being.
- 1:02:03However, this fantasy is also imminent
- 1:02:06to any social system that tends to
- 1:02:09function as autonomous constraint into
- 1:02:12its self
- 1:02:14reproduction. So I think that if we
- 1:02:19humans who are in [snorts] this
- 1:02:21fettolike position, if we were to
- 1:02:23disappear, machines real and digital
- 1:02:26would also cease to function. What does
- 1:02:30this mean? Truly a concluding thought.
- 1:02:33[snorts] Uh Jeffrey Hinton, a Nobel
- 1:02:36Prize winning computer scientists
- 1:02:40has warned that artificial intelligence
- 1:02:43may wipe out humans. But he proposes a
- 1:02:47solution that echoes the situation in
- 1:02:50Matrix.
- 1:02:51He expressed doubts about how tech
- 1:02:55companies are trying to ensure humans
- 1:02:58will remain dominant over artificial
- 1:03:01intelligence systems. Here is a quote.
- 1:03:05[snorts]
- 1:03:07In the future, artificial intelligence
- 1:03:10system might be able to control humans
- 1:03:13just as easily as an adult can bribe
- 1:03:17three-year-old boy with candy. this year
- 1:03:21has already seen examples of artificial
- 1:03:23int system willing to deceive cheat and
- 1:03:27steal and so on and so on. So Hinton's
- 1:03:32solution is what? Not trying to control,
- 1:03:36we cannot, but to use the present moment
- 1:03:40when maybe we still can influence
- 1:03:44artificial intelligence system
- 1:03:47so that we implant build into artificial
- 1:03:52intelligence models what he calls
- 1:03:55maternal instincts. so that they will
- 1:03:59care about people even once technology
- 1:04:02will become more powerful and smarter
- 1:04:06than humans.
- 1:04:09I mean what shocked me is that what he
- 1:04:14basically presupposes is that [snorts]
- 1:04:17artificial intelligence should become
- 1:04:21more precisely like the situation in
- 1:04:25matrix.
- 1:04:27uh providing us with uh uh providing us
- 1:04:31with uh kind of a maternal super ego
- 1:04:35where we can safely reproduce itself and
- 1:04:39manipulate our lives so that we will
- 1:04:42heal feel happy and satisfied as far as
- 1:04:47possible. [snorts] Now just three
- 1:04:50minutes more. My first conclusion
- 1:04:55is that
- 1:04:56>> [snorts]
- 1:04:56>> uh this vision of artificial
- 1:05:00intelligence as a virus and so on is
- 1:05:03already more and more becoming a
- 1:05:07reality. If you read [snorts] not
- 1:05:11reality in
- 1:05:13brutal raw sense but the fantasy which
- 1:05:17structures our artificial intelligence
- 1:05:19reality [snorts] just read authors that
- 1:05:22I mentioned like Peter Thiel or uh and
- 1:05:28Peter Thiel is for me a wonderful
- 1:05:30example of how progressive theory
- 1:05:34so-called what was once called
- 1:05:35progressive theory can be used precisely
- 1:05:38by libertarian neo fascists. You know
- 1:05:42who was the godfather but he was
- 1:05:45horrified by Peter Thiel of Peter Thiel
- 1:05:48Reneir
- 1:05:49and you know that Gay Vance was forced
- 1:05:52by Peter Thiel to study with Rene Jer
- 1:05:57and their vision is if you want to see
- 1:06:00the horror of where we are read it was
- 1:06:06published by card this 22 points
- 1:06:08resumeumé of palunteer ideology ology
- 1:06:12where they openly say that this apparent
- 1:06:16contradiction. On the one hand,
- 1:06:18artificial intelligence should be
- 1:06:20developed in total freedom outside of
- 1:06:23any state control, but at the same time,
- 1:06:26it should fully
- 1:06:29submit itself to the military demands
- 1:06:32and totally controlling us and so on and
- 1:06:36so on.
- 1:06:37uh so what are the conclusions to be
- 1:06:41drawn from this very briefly first and
- 1:06:46this is what I got from different
- 1:06:48readings especially Alena and so on that
- 1:06:52the common sense solution or formula
- 1:06:55would be this one my god if we are
- 1:06:58totally immersed into what is now called
- 1:07:03uh uh nea link and it's already mass
- 1:07:06produced by uh by uh by uh Elon Musk and
- 1:07:12by the Chinese
- 1:07:15that a direct guarantee it's not yet
- 1:07:17fully developed but you can directly
- 1:07:20make your thoughts readable to the
- 1:07:23digital space and of course in this way
- 1:07:26the one who controls the digital space
- 1:07:28can literally uh control your mind. The
- 1:07:32idea is this one. Once this happens, we
- 1:07:36will no longer feel immediate uh uh
- 1:07:39sentiments, desire. We will no longer be
- 1:07:41human, but maybe we will survive as some
- 1:07:45kind of empty subjects. My conclusion is
- 1:07:49the exact opposite.
- 1:07:52There will be no problem for us to feel
- 1:07:54emotions, fears, and so on. Because
- 1:07:58that's my point of using the term
- 1:08:00elaborated by Alen and Laden disaval you
- 1:08:03know it like you may know for example
- 1:08:07you make a confession to a ch GPT you
- 1:08:10may know it's all manipulated but it can
- 1:08:13still be indistinguishable from an
- 1:08:16authentic religious experience.
- 1:08:20So [snorts]
- 1:08:21my point and this is a nice paradox is
- 1:08:24that what at least the way it looks now
- 1:08:27what escapes to artificial intelligence
- 1:08:32is not the wealth of empirical exper
- 1:08:36experience you know like oh my god it's
- 1:08:38just a formal procedure what about all
- 1:08:41our feelings no it can easily do with
- 1:08:45that what escapes artificial
- 1:08:48intelligence is this purely only formal
- 1:08:52twist that defines subjectivity
- 1:08:55subject. When I say when we say
- 1:08:58artificial intelligence cannot grasp
- 1:09:02subject, it doesn't mean uh I'm safe in
- 1:09:05my inner life. No, it means that this
- 1:09:08gap reflexive gap the different levels
- 1:09:12which define symbolic order proper this
- 1:09:16is what is eluding artificial
- 1:09:19intelligence. The last point uh and it's
- 1:09:23my favorite maybe you know it [snorts]
- 1:09:26uh how does artificial intelligence
- 1:09:30address us
- 1:09:33like a dog I say it addresses us with a
- 1:09:37it wants but not in a pathetic way to
- 1:09:40make us like docks no unconscious
- 1:09:45uh uh but super ego and what kind of
- 1:09:49super ego
- 1:09:50Remember that for lacon
- 1:09:53super ego is not uh this terrorizing
- 1:09:57moral agency you know you must suffer
- 1:10:00renounce enjoyment and so on. No, super
- 1:10:03ego is for lang called to call in
- 1:10:07injunction to enjoy to enjoy excessively
- 1:10:11and
- 1:10:12that's the big joke that I want to
- 1:10:16finish [snorts] with. Uh maybe you know
- 1:10:19it I used it in some texts already. I
- 1:10:22think Trump is a complete idiot but
- 1:10:24sometimes comes close to a genius. Here
- 1:10:27is one quote. when uh uh [snorts] at the
- 1:10:31beginning of Iran war when uh here here
- 1:10:35is how Trump commented on it.
- 1:10:41Just listen. Quote from Trump literally.
- 1:10:44Our country is, this was after the first
- 1:10:47def facto defeats from Iran. Our country
- 1:10:51is winning again. In fact, we are
- 1:10:53winning so much that we really don't
- 1:10:56know what to do about it. People are
- 1:10:58asking me, please, please, please, Mr.
- 1:11:01President, we are winning too much. We
- 1:11:03can't take it anymore.
- 1:11:06But we are winning too much. And I say,
- 1:11:09"No, no, no. You are going to win again.
- 1:11:12You are going to win big. You are going
- 1:11:15to win bigger than ever." You, Russell,
- 1:11:20in a nice text. I admit I got arrived at
- 1:11:25this reference through a text of yours
- 1:11:27[snorts]
- 1:11:28refer to this by reading the message as
- 1:11:33don't be ashamed of winning too much.
- 1:11:36You must enjoy the pain of winning
- 1:11:38beyond the pleasure principle. [snorts]
- 1:11:42And uh this is what distinguishes and
- 1:11:45this is the horror to me Trump from the
- 1:11:49traditional authoritarian leader. A
- 1:11:52traditional leader does rhetorically the
- 1:11:56exact opposite. It says enough of
- 1:11:59decadent pleasure, sacrifice yourself
- 1:12:02and so on. But Trump is more correct. In
- 1:12:06every call to sacrifice, there is a
- 1:12:10hidden enjoyment. And I didn't want to
- 1:12:15talk too much. If there were to be a
- 1:12:19video clip that I wanted to show you
- 1:12:22would be the famous, you remember in 43
- 1:12:26Berlin sport after the Stalingrad
- 1:12:29defeat, Gable's speech. It's I claim
- 1:12:34super ego at its purest. The message is
- 1:12:37horrible. Gables shouts at the crowd. Do
- 1:12:42you want a total war? Yes, they shout.
- 1:12:45He shouts, "Do you want a war so
- 1:12:49terrible that you cannot even imagine
- 1:12:51it?"
- 1:12:53Yes, they shout. Do you want to work 13,
- 1:12:5614, even more? Not what? Yes, it's
- 1:13:00absolutely clear that from the facial
- 1:13:03expressions and so on that
- 1:13:06what gables call sacrifice means
- 1:13:11excessive [snorts]
- 1:13:13enjoyment and I think that this is how
- 1:13:18artificial intelligence machine is
- 1:13:21experienced as a maternal super ego
- 1:13:25which addresses us with an injunction to
- 1:13:28enjoy. And we obey it in the precise
- 1:13:31Trumpian way. When you browse the web,
- 1:13:34you never get enough. You always want
- 1:13:36more. You go to next site, ask more
- 1:13:39questions and so on and so on. And
- 1:13:42[snorts]
- 1:13:43okay, I will just finish with a social
- 1:13:46point
- 1:13:48that the things are no longer dreams.
- 1:13:53Now this this is the key for us today.
- 1:13:56That's why I talk about libertarian
- 1:13:58fascism. Total freedom for those who
- 1:14:02control the matrix. You find this in
- 1:14:05Elon Musk, in Peter Till. That's why
- 1:14:08they already plan to move the production
- 1:14:12of
- 1:14:14digital machines programs to outer space
- 1:14:18first to satellites then to moon so that
- 1:14:21it will be totally out of control. This
- 1:14:26is the social reality of the maternal
- 1:14:30maternal super ego. So to get out of
- 1:14:34this it's not enough just to have uh
- 1:14:39some kind of
- 1:14:41inner distance and so on. Social change
- 1:14:44is needed and referring to you Dominic I
- 1:14:48would like to conclude with some nice
- 1:14:51passage theological that I found. I was
- 1:14:55studying uh how in the original Bible
- 1:15:01how Satan and
- 1:15:04Holy Ghost are defined. You know that
- 1:15:08the word Satan in ancient Hebrew,
- 1:15:11correct me if I'm wrong, means advocate,
- 1:15:15prosecutor. It means somebody who
- 1:15:18prosecutes you, attack you, even maybe
- 1:15:21cheating a little bit like to make
- 1:15:23things look bad as you as possible. And
- 1:15:26you know that pane or whatever the other
- 1:15:29it has other meanings. The word for holy
- 1:15:32spirit
- 1:15:34in everyday use at that time means
- 1:15:38advocate. Not they didn't have it legal
- 1:15:41men means the one who tries to help you
- 1:15:44against Satan by giving you proper
- 1:15:48advices. The horror of
- 1:15:53no wonder that
- 1:15:55people like Peter Thiel and so on they
- 1:15:58are all obsessed by Christianity. Peter
- 1:16:01deal attacks us people who believe in uh
- 1:16:06ecological threat artificial
- 1:16:08intelligence not threat but we don't
- 1:16:10know what and war danger he says this is
- 1:16:14antichrist today no I think it's clearly
- 1:16:18that he is the antichrist what he wants
- 1:16:22to do is precisely
- 1:16:25satanize the holy spirit and the whole
- 1:16:29point is to in this is for me admittedly
- 1:16:33this is a nice ideological conclusion.
- 1:16:36The task is to keep apart these two
- 1:16:40dimensions. No, maybe there are but I
- 1:16:44doubt some vague references uh
- 1:16:47possibilities to read uh ancient
- 1:16:51testament God as Satan in this sense of
- 1:16:54severe judge and so on. But uh uh today
- 1:17:02Satan is artificial intelligence
- 1:17:06and artificial intelligence
- 1:17:09at least we have to separate in it the
- 1:17:12aspect of Satan for the aspect of holy
- 1:17:16spirit because only a new you know I'm
- 1:17:20an old communist Christian for me holy
- 1:17:24spirit is as you know the first name of
- 1:17:27the communist party you know like
- 1:17:30egalitarian community and so on and I
- 1:17:33think that today when we are
- 1:17:36interrelated as individuals where
- 1:17:38society is falling apart and when
- 1:17:42although it's the strongest social link
- 1:17:44artificial intelligence is precisely
- 1:17:48contributing to this falling apart of
- 1:17:51the social space the fighting for A new
- 1:17:56dimension of Holy Spirit is not just a
- 1:18:01aological matter. It's the main
- 1:18:04political task at this moment. I'm sorry
- 1:18:07that I was too long. I'm old tired. But
- 1:18:11uh I hope I hope you know I have only
- 1:18:14two wishes now. One I want to uh die
- 1:18:18like Hannah Arent.
- 1:18:20You know how she died? Richard
- 1:18:22Bernstein, the new school professor,
- 1:18:24told me he was there. She invited guests
- 1:18:27to her home. They talked. She was at the
- 1:18:31photo and she said, "I will just fall
- 1:18:33asleep a little bit." Then she awakened.
- 1:18:36They talked more. Then she said, "I'm
- 1:18:38tired. I will fall a little bit." She
- 1:18:40awakened again. And the third time she
- 1:18:42fell asleep and didn't awaken. My god, I
- 1:18:46would like to
- 1:18:48die like this. Thank you very much.
- 1:18:51[applause]
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This page contains the full transcript of Slavoj Žižek: Should We Grasp AI Not Only as Substance But Also as Subject? - May 22, 2026 by Dominik Finkelde - Hochschule f. Philosophie, generated from the public captions YouTube serves with the video. The transcript has 8,950 words across 1,452 segments, with the original timestamps preserved so you can click any line to jump to that moment in the embedded player.
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