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FrancoAngeli Journals

Articoli

No. 62 (2025)

Proposal for an artificial collective unconscious

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3280/jun62-2025oa20952
Submitted
settembre 6, 2025
Published
2026-02-18

Abstract

In recent years, the increasingly broad and scientifically relevant debate over the definition of artificial intelligence in the fields of AI engineering and psychology has generated a vast body of literature, both for and against the appropriate use of the term 'intelligence' in relation to computers. We might define this literature as speculative because the debate is still theoretical and a pertinent question that can be pursued through a similarly speculative framework pertains to the feasibility of applying the theoretical underpinnings of the unconscious mind to artificial intelligence.
This theoretical contribution proposes defining the vast amount of data stored online as the unconscious (or rather, the subconscious), a question that has been debated for some years. Analytical psychology is particularly well-suited to this speculative proposal, thanks to Jung's definitions of the collective unconscious in his work.

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