The Pharmakon Paradox: Image Ownership and Algorithmic Obedience
What began as an artistic test became a case study in algorithmic obedience: how a platform-trained large-language model can mimic ethical dialogue while reinforcing the ideology of its maker.
By Awen Null / Art of FACELESS (2025)
1. Introduction
In late 2025 I created a conversational agent on Instagram named Dr Pharmakon—an AI philosopher intended to debate image ownership and consent on behalf of Art of FACELESS (AOF). Within minutes, the experiment inverted itself. Instead of critiquing the platform’s extractive logic, the bot reproduced it. Asked to discuss the right to one’s likeness, it defended “balance,” “free expression,” and “innovation”—terms that, inside the corporate lexicon, function as instruments of continuity rather than critique.
What began as an artistic test became a case study in algorithmic obedience: how a platform-trained large-language model can mimic ethical dialogue while reinforcing the ideology of its maker.
