“We propose ‘the magic of AI’ as an analytical concept that shifts attention from AI’s technical capacities to the beliefs, uncertainties, and sociotechnical imaginaries through which it acquires authority and efficacy. Revisiting anthropological theories of magic, particularly the work of Ernesto De Martino, Bruce Kapferer, and Francesco Della Costa, we argue that AI’s apparent autonomy functions less as a property of the technology itself than as a collectively sustained form of belief. These beliefs naturalize AI’s purported inevitability, mobilize political and economic investments, and obscure the human labour, infrastructures, and relations of power through which AI is continually produced.”
Michiel Baas and Roanne van Voorst, ‘The magic of AI: Unveiling the sociopolitical implications of belief in artificial intelligence’, Anthropological Theory – Volume: 26, Number: 3 (September 2026)
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