Oriented Toward “My World”: Platform-Based Media Programmability and Individuation Processes

Abstract

AI application development platforms incorporating generative artificial intelligence into their technology stack are reconstructing software development paradigms. Drawing on the convergence of platform studies and infrastructure studies and engaging materially attentive political-economic critique, this study combines theoretical literature review with hands-on experience in building AI agents on the Coze platform to propose the concept of “Level 4 platforms,” exploring how agent platforms function as weak emergence structures in technological programming practice, generating differentiated functionalities and possibilities for action through user operations. Drawing on Gilbert Simondon’s theory of individuation, this study further proposes the analytical framework of “Human-Media Co-individuation,” employing the concept of “intraface” to analyze how users achieve dynamic element-network configuration through visual programming interfaces. Through a case illustration of building a research literature assistant agent, this paper demonstrates the four-stage operational chain—from goal definition, component configuration, and workflow construction to testing and iteration—revealing how users and technical elements achieve co-individuation through mutual adjustment. However, this study simultaneously identifies the structural limits of platform-based empowerment: commercial logic constraining user creativity, new forms of digital divide arising from unequal digital literacy, precarity stemming from platform dependency, and fundamental reliance on existing infrastructure platforms. Whether this transformation represents genuine change or a reconfiguration of existing power asymmetries remains contingent upon the ongoing unfolding of technological development, commercial strategies, regulatory interventions, and user practices.