This article sets off for an exploration of the still evolving discourse surrounding artificial intelligence (AI) in the wake of the release of ChatGPT. It scrutinizes the pervasive narratives that are shaping the societal engagement with AI, spotlighting key themes such as agency and decision-making, autonomy, truthfulness, knowledge processing, prediction, general purpose, neutrality and objectivity, apolitical optimization, sustainability game-changer, democratization, mass unemployment, and the dualistic portrayal of AI as either a harbinger of societal utopia or dystopia. Those narratives are analysed critically based on insights from critical computer science, critical data and algorithm studies, from STS, data protection theory, as well as from the philosophy of mind and semiotics. To properly analyse the narratives presented, the article first delves into a historical and technical contextualisation of the AI discourse itself. The article then introduces the notion of "Zeitgeist AI" to critique the imprecise and misleading application of the term "AI" across various societal sectors. Then, by discussing common narratives with nuance, the article contextualises and challenges often assumed socio-political implications of AI, uncovering in detail and with examples the inherent political, power infused and value-laden decisions within all AI applications. Concluding with a call for a more grounded engagement with AI, the article carves out acute problems ignored by the narratives discussed and proposes new narratives recognizing AI as a human-directed tool necessarily subject to societal governance.

翻译：本文旨在探讨ChatGPT发布后仍在不断演变的人工智能（AI）相关论述。文章审视了当前塑造社会对AI认知的主流叙事，聚焦于以下关键议题：能动性与决策、自主性、真实性、知识处理、预测能力、通用性、中立性与客观性、去政治化的优化、可持续性变革推动力、民主化进程、大规模失业，以及将AI二元化为社会乌托邦或反乌托邦预兆的倾向。本文基于批判计算机科学、批判数据与算法研究、科学技术研究（STS）、数据保护理论、心灵哲学与符号学的洞见，对这些叙事展开批判性分析。为深入剖析现有叙事，文章首先追溯了AI论述的历史渊源与技术语境，进而提出“时代精神AI”这一概念，以批判“AI”术语在各社会领域中被模糊且误导性的使用方式。随后，文章通过细致辨析常见叙事，将AI的社会政治意涵置于具体语境中予以审视与质疑，并借助实例详细揭示了所有AI应用中固有的政治性、权力渗透与价值负载的决策本质。文末呼吁以更务实的态度对待AI，在指出现有叙事所忽视的尖锐问题的同时，提出应建立将AI视为必然受社会规制的人类导向工具的新叙事框架。