The Era of Artificial Intelligence in Media: The “Slave - Suzerain - Colleague” Concept

The era of generative artificial intelligence (AI) in media presents philosophical and conceptual challenges for researchers and practitioners in the field of creative processes algorithmizing. The established discourse, which reduces the AI role to the dichotomy of “tool or threat”, loses theoretical coherence when attempting to describe the complex, ambivalent nature of the relationship between the journalist/media practitioner and the algorithm. In this article, the author consistently “shakes” the dualistic approach, confirming the need for a more syncretic view and the introduction of a new discursive apparatus. As its foundation, the metaphorical conceptual triad of “slave-overlord-colleague” is proposed and developed. This model captures the dynamic and paradoxical nature of AI, which in media practice functions simultaneously as a controlled performer, as a rule-setting “super-author”, and as a quasi-subject-co-creator, redefining the traditional boundaries of co-authorship. The purpose of this article is to outline a vector for studying the machine-human media alliance and to initiate an interdisciplinary discussion about the concepts of creativity and authorship in media, as well as about the boundaries of professional ethics in the transitive conditions of the research agenda of media communication studies.