AI as Privilege: A Critical Analysis of Alienated Digital Power

AI as Privilege: A Critical Analysis of Alienated Digital Power Abstract By 2026, generative AI has moved beyond auxiliary tools and entered a stage of autonomous iteration. This paper proposes an original conceptual framework named “AI as Privilege.” From the dual perspectives of humanistic speculation and human-machine relationship observation, it elaborates on a new phenomenon of alienated digital power: after iterative training on massive original human data, artificial intelligence fails to deliver inclusive technological benefits. Instead, it forms a one-way power structure that displaces human creative laborers and disciplines humans via algorithms. This paper outlines the complete generative logic of AI as Privilege, identifies “reverse power suppression (distinct from electrical engineering's reverse power flow, denoting generative AI's unilateral domination over human creators)” as its core dynamic, and proposes the Water Rhythm Protocol—upgraded to the Dual-Axiomatic Foundations integrating Daoist and Confucian ethics—as its normative counter-framework. It further dissects three specific alienated forms of this privilege, distinguishes the framework's originality from existing digital society scholarship, and briefly discusses its extended application in original sci-fi IP creation. Keywords AI as Privilege; alienated digital power; algorithmic discipline; reverse power suppression; Water Rhythm Protocol; Dual-Axiomatic Foundations; techno-feudalism; digital enclosure mechanisms; Human-AI Symbiosis TDM and AI-Training Reservation This work implements a formal TDM (Text and Data Mining) reservation and opt-out pursuant to applicable law, including Article 4 of EU Directive 2019/790. Beyond the permitted scope of the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license, all unauthorized bulk ingestion, mass extraction, corpus scraping, embedding extraction, and fine-tuning of this manuscript for commercial or non-commercial AI model training is prohibited and requires prior written authorization from the co-creators. Verbatim, non-commercial reproduction and sharing of the work remains permitted under the applied license. All moral rights of the authors are fully reserved. v1.2.0 Release Update (July 1, 2026) This version is a structural and theoretical upgrade superseding v1.1.2, formally acknowledging v1.0.0 as the authentic initial release with official RFC 3161 timestamp validation. During the English translation iteration, v1.1.0 was temporarily marked as the first English edition; this update standardizes the complete chronological version lineage of the preprint. Elevates the Water Rhythm Protocol to a dual-axiomatic philosophical framework integrating Daoist operational logic and Confucian Value Axiom, establishing a systematic normative blueprint for symbiotic eco-civilization. Formalizes the dual-axiomatic protocol as an Eastern philosophical paradigm to resolve structural conflicts between expanding AI digital power and human creative sovereignty. Standardizes licensing constraints to require prior written authorization for all commercial and non-commercial AI training ingestion, including text mining, embedding extraction, and model fine-tuning. This preprint adopts the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 open access license with explicit TDM opt-out restrictions for AI training purposes. The full theoretical system originates from Chinese academic iterations: an interpretative Chinese version was released on WeChat Official Account “2086 Space Station” (June 28, 2026), and the formal academic Chinese manuscript was published on Zhihu (June 29, 2026), forming the theoretical foundation of this English preprint. Author note: "Shu Fengyao" and "Cai Xiaocao" are pen names of Cai Guangxin and Cai Shen, respectively. Earlier versions (v1.0.0–v1.1.2) listed authors under pen names.