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De-anthropomorphizing artificial intelligence: The human-machine continuum in the post-artificial era
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1 School of Design and Construction, Washington State University, Pullman, Washington,
United States of America
AC, 025450089 https://doi.org/10.36922/AC025450089
Received: 5 November 2025 | Revised: 30 November 2025 | Accepted: 11 December 2025 | Published online: 22 January 2026
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Critical Posthuman Art and Communication)
© 2026 by the Author(s). This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution -Noncommercial 4.0 International License (CC-by the license) ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ )
Abstract
Contemporary discussions of artificial intelligence (AI) in design disciplines tend to evaluate machine creativity in relation to human cognition, leaving AI’s non-anthropomorphic character under-theorized. The present work uses the filmic narrative of Annihilation (2018) to challenge the persistent dismissal of AI’s creative capabilities. Such skepticism often hinges on the problematic assumption that human traits—such as inspiration, intuition, consciousness, spontaneity, will, or emotion—are pre-requisites for creativity. This line of argumentation relies on an anthropomorphic approach that is unable to imagine or accept non-human modes of perception, cognition, and agency. Instead, the study first proposes adopting an apophatic approach, through which AI is defined not by the projection of human qualities but rather via negation, emphasizing what lies beyond human understanding. It then advocates for “alien phenomenology” as a method for accepting the non-human cognitive capabilities of AI. Accepting AI as an “alien intelligence” shifts the role of the artist toward critique and curation, underscoring the artistic talent in recognizing unexplored, alien forms of beauty.
Keywords
Artificial intelligence
Post-artificial
Annihilation
Creativity
Alien intelligences
Alien phenomenology
Gray authorship
Human-machine continuum
Funding
None.
Conflict of interest
The author declares no conflict of interest.
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