Twisting existence in AI media: The mediation–extension schema

Abstract

This paper proposes the Mediation–Extension Schema (MES) as a theoretical framework for analyzing the ontological status of artificial intelligence as media. Drawing on philosophical media theory, it argues that AI should not be understood merely as a tool but as a system that actively shapes the conditions under which meaning, communication, and subjectivity emerge. MES integrates two conceptual lineages: mediation, from Aristotle’s metaxu, and extension, from Heidegger’s techne. Mediation refers to AI’s role in connecting otherwise isolated entities, while extension captures its capacity to reconfigure experiential and social structures. Through a concrete case of AI deployment, the paper demonstrates that such media operate as techno-social assemblages that transform human existence by mediating relations and extending the field of action. MES thereby offers a unified conceptual model for understanding how AI intervenes in the formation of being, knowledge, and power, contributing to ongoing debates in media philosophy, digital ontology, and the ethics of technology.