Notes on digital platforms, data economy and artificial intelligence.

Abstract

The objective of this text is to present some notes on the three themes referred to in the title – important today both in the public and academic debates – which, although strongly intertwined, in view of their common genesis, fruit of the Third Industrial Revolution, must be understood in their specificities in relation to the technological, economic and sociological aspects involved. From a critical reference to the idea of techno-feudalism, I introduce the discussion on the so-called data economy, which intersects the problems of digital platforms and artificial intelligence, emphasizing its aspect of fictitious capital. Artificial intelligence will be resumed next, first presenting some key concepts discussed in a relevant article about it, from the field of philosophy, and then providing an alternative Marxist analysis. It is a short text, which only aims to indicate a line of reasoning on the related themes, which I have been developing recently in other works resulting from the research project mentioned in the biographical note below.