The Compulsory Imaginary: AGI and Corporate Authority

A research paper analyzes how leading AGI companies OpenAI and Anthropic use similar rhetorical strategies to construct sociotechnical imaginaries that position themselves as indispensable to AI's future development. The study identifies four shared rhetorical operations that help these firms project corporate authority over technological futures despite their different public approaches.

• →OpenAI and Anthropic employ structurally identical rhetorical strategies despite different corporate cultures and leadership styles.
• →Four key rhetorical operations include self-exemption, teleological naturalization, qualified acknowledgment, and implicit indispensability.
• →The convergent messaging suggests institutional positioning rather than individual company strategy drives AGI narrative construction.
• →The research extends sociotechnical imaginaries framework from nation-states to private technology firms.
• →Findings raise questions about making corporate authority over AI futures more contestable from external sources.