From courtrooms to banks to governments, AI is already producing binding texts without anyone taking responsibility. This post explains the problem, the theory behind it, and the risks for everyday life.

Introduction

Authority has always been tied to a name. We expect to see a judge at the bottom of a sentence, an analyst behind a financial report, a minister presenting a policy draft. That name represents the subject who assumes responsibility for the decision. Today this assumption is collapsing. Courts, banks, and governments are beginning to rely on texts that look official, sound legitimate, and demand obedience, yet no one signs them.

The academic paper Null Subjects of Power: The Politics of Absence in Executable Language names this phenomenon the Null Subject of Power. The insight is simple but disruptive: decisions now exist without subjects. Obedience persists, responsibility disappears.

What the paper contributes

In linguistics, certain languages can drop the subject of a sentence. Spanish, Italian, and Latin allow sentences like llueve where there is no explicit subject. The grammar itself provides enough information for interpretation. This is called a null subject.

The paper shows that institutions today are working in the same way. With the use of large language models and predictive systems, decisions are written and circulated as binding outputs without requiring an author. The grammar of the institution, its formats and procedures, licenses the absence. What was once a linguistic option has become a political reality.

The contribution lies in defining the Null Subject of Power as a formal category, alongside the Regla compilada (compiled rule, equivalent to a type 0 grammar) and the soberano ejecutable (executable sovereign, the operative mechanism that enacts authority through rules). The paper argues that absence is no longer an accident but a structural device of governance in predictive societies.

Real-world cases explained clearly

Each of these cases illustrates the same point: authority remains intact, obedience is enforced, and the subject has vanished.

Why this matters

This shift creates obedience without responsibility. Citizens, investors, and institutions accept these outputs because they appear valid. But when the subject is absent, there is no one to hold accountable. Appeals lose their target. Responsibility dissolves into form.

This is more than a technical issue. It is the emergence of a new political category. When power operates without subjects, sovereignty no longer resides in rulers, judges, or ministers. It resides in the structure of executable language itself. The Regla compilada guarantees the command, and the soberano ejecutable enacts it. The subject disappears, but authority grows stronger.

Innovation of the paper

The originality of this work lies in:

Risks explained without jargon

The null subject of power brings clear dangers:

  1. Crisis of responsibility. Decisions bind citizens but cannot be attributed to a subject.
  2. Impossibility of appeal. Appeals require a responsible author; when none exists, appeals collapse into technical disputes.
  3. Erosion of accountability. Institutions replace deliberation and debate with procedural validation.
  4. Impersonal sovereignty. Sovereignty becomes a property of syntax, not of rulers or states.

These risks affect everyday life. They shape whether you can contest a sentence, trust a financial system, or understand who governs.

TL;DR

AI is creating authoritative texts without authors. Courts, banks, and governments are already using them. The paper names them Null Subjects of Power. Authority continues, responsibility disappears. Sovereignty shifts from people to structures.

Why you should care

When authority no longer requires an author, the fundamental basis of political life changes. Citizens lose the ability to trace responsibility, markets follow commands no one issues, and governments enact policies without subjects. The null subject of power is not only a theory; it is the logic of predictive societies already at work.

Read the full paper

👉 Null Subjects of Power: The Politics of Absence in Executable Language

About the Author

Agustin V. Startari is a linguistic theorist and researcher in historical studies. He is the author of Grammars of Power, Executable Power, and The Grammar of Objectivity. His work explores how artificial language structures redefine authority, legitimacy, and sovereignty in predictive societies.

Ethos

I do not use artificial intelligence to write what I don’t know. I use it to challenge what I do. I write to reclaim the voice in an age of automated neutrality. My work is not outsourced. It is authored.
— Agustin V. Startari