Overview

This volume advances the understanding of meaning-making in the age of artificial intelligence (AI) by adopting a semiotic perspective. It repositions semiotics as a discipline capable of engaging in a mutually fruitful dialogue with the social sciences. It explores processes of signification in emerging forms of human/non-human coexistence, focusing on the interdependence between consumption, technology, society, and culture, with particular attention to the role played by brands. The chapters raise a number of key questions: What methodologies can be employed to effectively study interactions among humans, non-human entities, and intangible elements (such as algorithms) in the construction of meaning? How can core notions such as enunciation, veridiction, and anthropomorphism be rethought in light of the expressive forms produced by AI? How can the complex operations of AI be interpreted through the lenses of translation and multimodality, and what challenges does this scenario pose to these concepts? What role do leading brands play in mitigating consumer resistance to the adoption of such technologies? What kinds of forms of life emerge and stabilize when humans accept delegating knowledge, passions, and actions to devices endowed with unprecedented levels of agency? How does AI represent itself? This volume is of appeal to a wide readership across the social sciences, cultural and media studies.

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9783032292711

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Paolo Peverini is a full professor of Semiotics in the Department of Political Science at LUISS University in Rome. His research engages with semiotic theory and critically examines the relationships between society, culture, technology, and consumption. He is the author and co-author of several books and numerous articles published in leading international journals. His recent work investigates the reciprocal influence between Bruno Latour’s reflections on the paradoxes of modernity and contemporary theories of signification. His latest publications include Bruno Latour in the Semiotic Turn. An Inquiry into the Networks of Meaning (Cham: Springer, 2024) and “Smart Objects as Social Actors: Towards a New Society of Objects between Semiotics and Actor-Network Theory,” Versus (VS), 2/2021, pp. 285–298. He currently serves as General Secretary of the Romance Federation of Semiotics (FedRoS) and is a former Vice-President of the Italian Association for Semiotic Studies (AISS). In 2017, he was appointed Consultant to the Dicastery for Communication by Pope Francis. Dario Mangano is Full Professor of Semiotics at the University of Palermo, where he directs the Bachelor’s and Master’s degree programs in Communication. He teaches Semiotics of Advertising and Brand Strategy and leads a Laboratory in Audiovisual Language. At the same university, he also directs the Laboratory of Communication. His research interests include design, advertising, photography, and gastronomy. His most recent publications in English include “Semiotics of Food,” published in Zeitschrift für Semiotik (2022); “This Is Not Vivian: The Photographer as a Form of Life,” in Versus (2019); and “Semiotics of Animals in Culture,” in Zoosemiotics 2.0 (with G. Marrone, Springer, 2018). He previously served as President of the Italian Association for Semiotic Studies (AISS).

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