Ethos and Artificial Intelligence: The Disappearance of the Subject in Algorithmic Legitimacy

Abstract

This article examines the erosion of ethos—the enunciative subject—in texts generated by artificial intelligence. Drawing from rhetorical theory and discourse analysis, it investigates how algorithmic language simulates legitimacy through grammatical impersonality, bypassing the traditional anchoring of authority in a speaker's ethical posture. From Aristotelian rhetoric to contemporary epistemology, ethos has functioned as a foundational element in establishing discursive credibility. However, in large language models, legitimacy is produced without subjectivity, intentionality, or embodied responsibility. This paper analyzes this shift across four dimensions: the grammatical void of the enunciator, the simulation of neutrality as rhetorical strategy, the rise of impersonal structures that entail no risk or accountability, and the reader’s disoriented obedience to statements without authorship. We argue that AI-driven discourse constitutes a new form of legitimacy without subject—statistically plausible, structurally coherent, and epistemically opaque. The findings are part of a broader research program presented in Grammars of Power.

Keywords: synthetic authority, grammar of power, algorithmic discourse, artificial intelligence, legitimacy, automated language, epistemology, linguistic agency, computational linguistics, artificial intelligence, linguistics, enunciative subject, passive voice, Linguistics/ethics, Artificial Intelligence/ethics