Artificial Intelligence and Synthetic Authority: An Impersonal Grammar of Power

This article offers a critical reading of the power exerted by artificial intelligence systems, from both linguistic and historical perspectives. Introducing the concept of synthetic authority, it examines how algorithmic technologies legitimize themselves through impersonal grammars — discursive structures that erase subjectivity and naturalize obedience. A genealogical approach connects this authority with earlier historical devices — the Church, modern science, and bureaucratic rationality — showing that AI represents a technical culmination of impersonal power. Tools from discourse analysis and critical theory are applied to reveal how the linguistic form of AI-generated statements reinforces perceived legitimacy while effacing human agency. This study is part of a broader research project developed in the unpublished manuscript Grammars of Power.