Deconstructing AI Power: From Political Capital to Algorithmic Control

Artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping political, economic, and social systems, yet the narratives surrounding it often obscure the complex power structures driving its design and deployment. Policymakers navigate digital platforms without fully grasping their algorithmic foundations, while engineers master technical architectures but remain detached from the political, financial, and ideological forces directing their work. This gap creates a governance blind spot, enabling opaque algorithmic control to expand without democratic oversight. This paper introduces a symbolic governance model that maps the flow of influence from capital owners and political authorities through technological infrastructures and algorithmic design, down to societal targets and cultural feedback loops. By translating technical complexity into an accessible analytical language, the framework equips non-technical stakeholders—diplomats, journalists, and policy analysts—with tools to decode embedded power structures in AI ecosystems. In doing so, it reframes AI not as a neutral tool but as an encoded structure of influence, shaped by human actors in a continuous interplay between economics, politics, technology, and society.