This session aims to reflect on AI as a profoundly political technology and, through a critical perspective that intersects journalism, art, and technological thought, to examine the genealogy of algorithms and their shaping of communal life. Far from being neutral, these technologies reproduce power structures that affect sovereignty, agency, and citizen participation, and extend extractive dynamics impacting natural resources and collective imagination. In a present increasingly mediated by automated systems, approaching AI from a cultural perspective is key to activating critical imaginaries and opening up the possibility of fairer, more shared futures.