O golpe da IA: propaganda, exploração e lucro na arte de convencer as pessoas acerca das promessas da tecnologia

Gilberto Alves Araújo

doi:10.15448/1980-3729.2026.1.49523

Authors

Gilberto Alves Araújo University of the Witwatersrand (WITS)/Federal University of Pará (UFPA)/Air Force University (UNIFA), Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8177-0730

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15448/1980-3729.2026.1.49523%20

Keywords:

AI hype, legitimating rhetoric, data extraction, labor precarity, governance and digital rights

Abstract

This review presents The AI Con as a critical essay that deconstructs AI hype by treating it as a discursive label that masks automation, data extraction, and market reconfiguration. The authors move through arenas such as political hearings, the anthropomorphization of systems, labor precarity, the automation of public services, and the proliferation of generative models in art and journalism, showing how promises circulate and become policy, products, and institutional reorganization. The appraisal highlights the book’s strength in linking discourse to material effects and its call for transparency, consent, and rights, while noting limits tied to an essayistic format and the dominance of U.S. cases.

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Author Biography

Gilberto Alves Araújo, University of the Witwatersrand (WITS)/Federal University of Pará (UFPA)/Air Force University (UNIFA), Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil.

Holds a PhD in Media Discourse Studies from the University of the Witwatersrand (WITS), with a research stay at the University of Mannheim (UMA), is an associate researcher at WITS, a professor in the Postgraduate Program in Language Studies (PPGEL) at the Federal University of Pará (UFPA), and a lecturer at the Language Center of the Air Force University (UNIFA).

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