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AI and Ideology: The Political Transformations of Tomorrow

The médialab is co-organising this launch conference for the Paris branch of INALCO’s ‘Illiberalism Studies’ programme, funded by the ‘Choose France for Science’ initiative. This event will explore how artificial intelligence is shaped by ideological assumptions, political values and competing visions of social order. It will also examine how it is transforming contemporary debates on democracy and (il)liberalism.

Event, Colloquium

Inalco - Maison de la Recherche (2, rue de Lille - Paris 7e) - Auditorium Dumézil

Program

9:00 – 9:15pm | Welcome and opening remarks 

Marlène Laruelle, Chair of Illiberalism at Inalco and Luiss Guido Carli University 

9:15 – 11:00am | Panel 1 - AI Between Digital Illiberalism and Authoritarianism 

Chair: Jasmin Dall’Agnola, University of Zurich 

  • Digital Surveillance Beyond Borders: On Frontex, Artificial Intelligence, and the Limits of Privacy Politics
    Elizabeth Calhoun, University of Maynooth
  • Containing Superintelligence? AI Safety and the Shadows of Cold War Liberalism 
    Apolline Taillandier, University of Cambridge
  • Digital Morality and Dissent: Reframing AI through Feminist Resistance
    Diana-Nicoleta Mirancea, Université of Bucarest
  • Identifying the Transnational Circulation of Neoreactionary Discourses 
    Tristan Boursier, University of Québec (Montréal) ; Arnaud Miranda, CEVIPOF Sciences Po ; and Antoine Lemor, Université of Sherbrooke

11:00 – 11:15am | Coffee break  

11:15 – 1:00pm | Panel 2 - Ideologie(s) embedded in AI  

 Chair: Valentin Goujon, Sciences Po

  • Silicon Valley's Suburban Landscape: Material Infrastructures and Ideological Attachments 
    Michelle Venetucci, Yale University 
  • The Paranoid Style in Artificial Intelligence: Rational Paranoia as Epistemic Ideal 
    Anthony Burton, University of Amsterdam 
  • Algorithmic Illiberalism: How A.I. Bias Amplifies Ideological Power 
    Pat Rzepczynski,  Jagiellonian University and Kevin Cooper, Northeastern University 
  • Liberal Machines: LLM Bias and Differential Regime Fit 
    Alec Crisman, McGill University  

1:00 – 2:00pm | Lunch break 

2:00 – 3:45pm | Panel 3 - Political theory of AI

Chair: Raphaël Demias-Morisset, George Washington University 

  • Efficiency without Politics: AI’s Ideology and the Evolution towards an “Optimization Contract”
    Adrien Tallent, Sorbonne Université
  • Is AI the Anti-Christ?
    Josh Vandiver, University of Colorado 
  • The Ideological Spiral of Technological Salvation
    Yaelle Amsallem, ESCP Business School
  • Digital Necromancy, Neotraditional Futurism, Technological Autarky: Three Visions of AI in Russia 
    Dima Kortukov, University of Alabama 

3:45 – 4:00pm | Coffee break 

16h00 – 17h30 | Roundtable – (Digital) capitalism and the (Far) Right: Illiberalism, libertarianism, and fascism in Silicon Valley 

Chair:  Marlène Laruelle, Luiss Guido Carli University 


Sylvie Laurent, Sciences Po, Jasmin Dall’Agnola, Université de Zurich, Valentin Goujon, Sciences Po, Raphaël Demias-Morisset, Université George Washington

Practical Information

  • Tuesday 28 April 2026
  • 9.00 am–5.30 pm
  • Inalco – Maison de la Recherche (2, rue de Lille – Paris 7th arrondissement) – Dumézil Auditorium
  • Registration required
  • In person