Prof. Dr. Tutku Akter Gökaşan of Girne American University with Assist. Prof. Dr. Gürkan Gökaşan at Cyprus International University: Their Article on AI Personal Virtual Assistants and Digital Alienation Accepted at Public Journal of Semiotics (PJOS) from Lund University.

The article also analyses the corporate structures behind Virtual Assistants (VAs) and the ideologies they represent.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) personal virtual assistants function as ideological interfaces of platform capitalism rather than merely tools of convenience. Authors support this assertion through an analysis of the following concepts: as corporate owners and operators, the corporate structure and relationship, platform ecosystem, and VA functionality.

The authors highlight that ownership is more than an economic relation; it provides corporations a system of meaning or legitimacy.

The article does not conduct an empirical analysis of the actual user experience with AVs or the corporate structure and ownership of VAs; however, the article uses a framework based on the following theories; Marx's Alienation Theory, Althusser's Interpellation Theory, Gramsci's Hegemony Theory, Ferdinand de Saussure's Semiotic Theory and Roland Barthes' Semiotic Theory.

Four Assistants = Different Platform Logics

The authors provide a comparative analysis of the following four (4) AVs: Siri – a closed, integrated ecosystem; Google Assistant – access to information generated by algorithm; Alexa – cloud-based consumption and home infrastructure; and Bixby – reliance on interconnected devices. The authors emphasise that the AVs cannot be treated as interchangeable “tools” because they represent different logics of their respective platforms.

Digital Alienation = Amplified Alienation

According to the authors, the introduction of AVs does not create a new form of alienation in digital capitalism, instead, AVs magnify and reorganise the existing forms of alienation within digital capitalism. Although companies provide VAs as a personal service, they do so by converting the user's voice, preference(s) and daily activity data into data for which the user does not have ownership or control. Therefore, the terms ‘assistance’ and ‘personalisation’ are not visible in the language of user/corporate ownership.

The acceptance of the article was communicated to the authors by Jordan Zlatev, the journal's editor in chief. The article has progressed into production.