Title: Artificial Subjectivity

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Tags: Article, 2025, selected

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Side_images: artificial_subjectivity_web.jpg

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Download_link: manovich.artificial_subjectivity.2025.pdf

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Text: ### Publication

Lev Manovich, "Artificial Subjectivity," in (link: https://nyelvor.mnyknt.hu/ text: Magyar Nyelvőr popup: yes) (Hungarian Language Guard), 2025.

Russian translation (by the author): Лев Манович, "Синтетическая субъективность," Журнал (link: https://www.gikit.ru/kinema/ text: Кинема popup: yes). 2025.


### Abstract

GenAI language models open a new chapter in the history of how human beings and their subjectivity are represented in the arts. Unlike traditional artistic media, where human qualities must be deliberately crafted by authors, GenAI systems produce the appearance of subjectivity automatically through language that presents itself as emanating from a human subject. They generate expressions of human consciousness — thought, emotion, perception, aesthetic judgment — as a default feature of their communication. Thus, they are not merely tools for crafting artistic works that can include representations of human beings, but entities that already simulate a thinking, feeling human subject. Consequently, these models are not only practical instruments but also constitute a new form of representation — one that changes our understanding of what it means to depict subjectivity. This capacity challenges established traditions of artistic representation and presents one of the most compelling artistic challenges and opportunities of our time.