The Production and Control of Representations in Artificial Intelligence — Research II: A Conceptual Architecture, Authority Structure, Representation Lifecycle, and Research Protocol

Research II examines the structural relations through which representations are constituted before they reach a recipient, treating representation itself as the central analytical object rather than the model, the platform, or the user in isolation. The program's central question: who produces the representations a recipient encounters through AI systems, who controls their formation, availability, and appearance, and who consumes them? This deposit contains the Initial Program Manuscript (v0.1.0), consolidating four foundational documents: 1. Conceptual Architecture (adopted, v0.2) — five functional units. 2. Authority Structure (adopted, v0.2) — five authority types. 3. Representation Lifecycle (adopted, v0.2) — six stages, canonical path, five alternative paths. 4. Research Questions (adopted, v0.2) — twenty questions across four families (A–D). Methodological scope (RQ-D2) is adopted as v0.2: Mixed Methods (Document Analysis → Case Study → Comparative Analysis). Systems selected: ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity. Timeline: 10–14 weeks. No empirical work has been performed under this protocol. No findings are reported. The manuscript presents an architecture and a research protocol, not results. Related DOIs: - Figshare: 10.6084/m9.figshare.34908597 - OSF Registration: 10.17605/OSF.IO/8NZV2 - Website: https://pcr-ai.netlify.app Version 0.1.0 — November 2026.