Unveiling Algorithmic Power and Its Abstract Domination in the Digital Intelligence Era

With the iteration of Gen-AI, algorithms have found widespread application across all sectors of society. The underlying design of algorithms is rooted in specific preferences and intentions of developers, regulated by the “logic of capital”, and even becomes a technical apparatus for capital power to maintain its abstract domination. Specific algorithms obscure their true nature through ideological illusions, and by constructing “Hyperreality” digital ideological landscapes and strengthening institutional ideological state apparatuses, they cause subjects to fall into a state of misidentification. On the one hand, algorithms invisibly configure the behavior of subjects, subjecting them to indirect domination by external forces within a false form of freedom. In this process, algorithmic power is implicitly constrained by capital power, continuously reinforcing its abstract domination and further trapping subjects in a deepening alienation. On the other hand, subjects under abstract domination have a triple cognitive state: unconscious identification, rational compromise, and critical resistance. Therefore, the deep integration of algorithmic power and abstract dominion should be exposed and constrained, capital’s absolute control over algorithms should be curbed by incorporating humanistic appeal into the process of capital allocation, and the synergistic role of ethical norms and institutional constraints should be strengthened, to achieve rational societal development.