What is a digital author? Generative AI, concealment, and notes for the emergent moment

The emergence of Generative Artificial Intelligence has to be seen as a paradigmatic shift that moves digital information systems from Search to Prediction. This article establishes how the Googlization of the world led to the naturalization of search-based information systems as our default modes of digital narration, offering ‘Revelation’ as the primary author function of digital systems that opens up the practice of ‘interpretation’ as central to digital epistemology. In looking at the models of Generative Artificial Intelligence, with a specific focus on ChatGPT, I argue that the new author function that is being normalized by Generative Artificial Intelligence systems is one of ‘concealment’. I illustrate the new forms of Generative Artificial Intelligence concealments by looking at the most prevalent anxieties that have accompanied these applications and unpack what authorship of concealment looks like in these emerging technology networks. It thus positions the narratives of rogue, hallucinating or fabricating Generative Artificial Intelligence as actively shaping new forms of digital authorship, which cannot be addressed merely by the current trend of asking for a slowing down of AI development and setting safeguards. Instead, this article proposes the interventions that are needed to address the Generative Artificial Intelligence emergent moment, beyond the easily thrown-around demands of transparency and explainability.