AI as a Political Actor and the Ethics of Memory in Data Capitalism

Most existing discussions of AI within data capitalism focus on technological and economic dimensions. This paper instead proposes to understand AI as a political actor operating within the infrastructures of data capitalism. In particular, it explores how algorithmic governance reshapes social memory. This paper engages the political theology of Johann Baptist Metz, especially his concept of dangerous memory. Metz argues that Christian faith preserves the memory of historical suffering and the victims of history as a critical force that challenges dominant political and economic systems. Metz’s theology provides a powerful framework for critiquing data capitalism, which often reduces human experience to decontextualized data while marginalizing historical suffering and structural injustice. By bringing Metz’s concept of memory into dialogue with AI-driven data capitalism, this study develops a political-theological critique of algorithmic systems and reflects on the ethical responsibility of preserving the memory of injustice in the age of artificial intelligence.