Jianwei Xun, the supposed philosopher behind the hypnocracy theory, does not exist and is a product of artificial intelligence

The French city of Cannes hosted a roundtable discussion on February 14 called “The Metamorphosis of Democracy - How Artificial Intelligence is Disrupting Digital Governance and Redefining Our Policy.”

The debate was covered in an article by EL PAÍS after Gianluca Misuraca, Vice President of Technology Diplomacy at Inspiring Futures, introduced the concept of “hypnocracy” — a new form of manipulation outlined in a book by Jianwei Xun called Hypnocracy: Trump, Musk, and the New Architecture of Reality. However, this Hong Kong philosopher does not exist, as revealed by Sabina Minardi, editor-in-chief of the Italian magazine L’Espresso.

The theory was created by essayist and editor Andrea Colamedici, who, although listed as a translator, is actually the co-author of the book, along with two AI platforms. This fact was never disclosed, violating EU law on AI. In response, EL PAÍS decided to remove the article published on March 26, which referenced content from the book attributed to the non-existent Hong Kong philosopher.

The theory has been widely discussed by media outlets and academic figures, including Cecilia Danesi, a researcher at the Institute of European Studies and Human Rights (Pontifical University of Salamanca), who attended the Cannes meeting and delved into the concepts in Hypnocracy: Trump, Musk, and the New Architecture of Reality.

Journalist Sabina Minardi, after multiple attempts to interview the supposed author, uncovered that it was a pseudonym for a work created and edited by Colamedici in collaboration with two AI tools, part of a project to reveal AI’s influence in producing coherent and convincing discourse. As a result, researcher Danesi referred to this new form of manipulation as a “digital dictatorship.”

Emilio Carelli, the director of L’Espresso, discussed the controversy in an opinion piece: “At this point, an obligatory question arises: if the theses of this book are correct or at least have sparked an intense cultural debate, involving intellectuals and philosophers, including academics from the prestigious HEC Institute of Paris, who cited it in their scientific articles, does it really matter if it was written by artificial intelligence? Or, as in this case, co-created with AI? Could this model pave the way for a new way of doing philosophy? If so, the successful experiment of Hypnocracy teaches us something important: we can also have an active relationship with AI, and, above all, we can use it to learn to think."

Andrea Colamedici, 24 hours after EL PAÍS first published this article, responded to questions from the newspaper: “The aim of Hypnocracy was to create a philosophical experiment and an artistic performance designed to highlight the risks and dangers of using artificial intelligence by creating a book that said things that I myself believe in and have produced.“

He continued: “I did not want to deceive the reader; the purpose was academic: to highlight the dangerous mechanisms of artificial intelligence usage by big tech companies through its reckless application and, instead, to invite conscious use of it. I wanted to make clear not only the dangers but also to show the practice of the theses that it embodied, so it is a book that simultaneously explains a theory and embodies it at the same time.”

The European AI Act, adopted by EU institutions on December 8, 2023, and approved by the European Parliament on March 13, 2024, considers it a serious violation to fail to label AI-generated texts, videos, or audios, which Colamedici’s published work does not do at any point in either the Italian or English version.

Colamedici argued: “I’ve left a series of traces for the reader, both inside and outside the book. For example, chapter one describes the Berlin experiment, which is exactly the depiction of what Hypnocracy is. That chapter narrates the experience of a group of university scholars, who invent an author that writes a fake book that becomes loved, commented on, and discussed within the cultural environment.”

In Spanish, the book is being published by Rosameron Publishing, where it is presented as “an essential map for understanding how power operates in the era of manipulated perception.” The founder of Rosameron, Francisco Martínez Soria, warned that the Spanish version of the book will include an explanation of how and why the work was created, as well as the mixed identity behind the name listed as the author.

Jianwei Xun’s website has been updated to include the following reference, now revealing his identity: “Jianwei Xun emerged in late 2024 as a distributed philosophical entity born from the collaborative interaction between human intelligence and artificial intelligence systems.”

The website admits the deception by acknowledging that Xun was “initially introduced to the world as a Hong Kong-born philosopher based in Berlin.” It still maintains contact details for interview requests or “event appearances,” as well as a scientific publication on the Academia.edu portal.

“I did it because the intention was to make everything more effective, not just to create a theory, but to make a book that was both theory and practice, an opportunity for people to experience more intensely what they were reading,” said the Italian editor.

He added: “It’s important to make it clear to the reader that we are all perpetually hypnotized. I did this by inventing a story, but it was a story that, from the very beginning, had the purpose of being revealed. The idea of hiding all this was never considered. But if I had revealed it right away, I wouldn’t have been able to play the role of showing in a practical way — and not just on paper, not just theoretically — what the deep meaning of the concept of hypnocracy is.”

The author denies that publishing the book under a fictitious name was a commercial strategy: “If it had been called [the author] Andrea Colamedici, it would have sold more than it has, but it would have made you think less.”

He concludes: “Hypnocracia was not written by artificial intelligence. It was written through a specific use of artificial intelligence that involves constructing a system that puts artificial intelligences in dialogue with each other.”

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