Artificial Intelligence and the Modern Condition of Expertise

Abstract

The following essay offers a political theory of the expert. I draw connections between the authority derived from expertise to the emerging role of artificial intelligence in a political condition marked by an impersonal sovereign. I begin with a detailed description of the role of the expert and expertise with specific attention to the function of knowledge as a source of authority. Through the work of Max Weber and Carl Schmitt, I connect the political role of the expert to the rise and prominence of the administrative or total state. The essay focuses on the connection between the expert as an authority in the modern state and the emergence of a political logic that invites artificial intelligence into the realm of authority.