Abstract

This essay examines the cultural politics of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in China through the lens of postsocialism, proposing the concept of a ‘postsocialist AI’ that goes beyond the dominant paradigm of neoliberal informationalism. The essay first explores the distinct state-capital nexus in China’s AI development, characterized by paradoxical modes of operation driven by neoliberal motivations, yet also deeply influenced by symbolic lexicons, value systems, and institutional structures rooted in Leninist-Maoist traditions. The complex interplay of state support, local governmental practices, and market investment showcases ongoing negotiations among contradictory political-economic objectives and subject positions that resist simplification into a globally universalized model of neoliberal capitalism. Further, the essay investigates the ontogenesis or sociogenesis of machine learning – the process through which intelligent machines become socialized through interactions with their sociocultural and political contexts. By foregrounding the interactive encounter between distinct modes of machinic intelligence and Chinese modernity experiences, the essay contests the prevailing neoliberal subjectivity in AI studies and seeks to expand the political horizon limited by the hegemonic figure of homo economicus.