The Myth of AI Exceptionalism

This article critically examines the prevalent narrative of "AI exceptionalism"—the belief that artificial intelligence constitutes an ontological rupture from previous technologies and human cognitive extensions. Drawing from decolonial theory and the enactive approach, I interrogate how metaphorical framings of AI as radical novelty, inevitable progress, and autonomous agent serve specific economic and political interests while obscuring historical continuities. Rather than representing a fundamental break, I argue that contemporary AI functions primarily as a powerful magnifier that accelerates existing colonial-modern epistemologies and extractivist knowledge patterns. By analyzing AI through the lens of extended cognition theory, I reposition these technologies within the historical continuum of human cognitive extensions, from early writing systems to computational tools, while acknowledging their distinctive emergent agential properties. This reconceptualization has profound implications for academic praxis, suggesting the need for a critical cognitive sovereignty—neither rejecting AI tools nor uncritically depending on them, but engaging them reflexively, holding the center of meaning-making within our subjective experience. By demythologizing AI exceptionalism, we can recognize our own tendency to fear invasion, abduction, and rapture, thereby recovering a more nuanced understanding of human-technology relationships and reasserting our collective agency in shaping technological futures toward democratically chosen ends.