This article examines the legacies of antihumanism within the context of artificial in-telligence (AI) research. In response to the ethical risks inherent to the proliferation of quasi-autonomous computational agents, the AI industry, legislative bodies and academia often advocate for a “human-centred” approach that would align AI with human values, desires and goals, ostensibly to make these technologies more transpar-ent and trustworthy. The rhetoric of human-centred AI reveals many of the conceptual limitations that antihumanism had already identified in the foundationalist and sub-jectivist assumptions of Western philosophy. This article considers some of these chal-lenging limitations while also problematizing antihumanism itself. Through Derrida’s notion of “centre” and an analysis of alignment methodologies, the article demon-strates how attempts to decentre the human often reconstitute new forms of authority. It then examines the possibility of surpassing standard anthropocentric approaches in AI while maintaining a critical philosophical engagement with the structurally neces-sary yet precarious character of organizing principles.

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