The study explores how editorial cartoons portray artificial intelligence by analyzing visual metaphors, inferred metaphors drawn from images and text, and the discursive practices cartoonists employ. Using Lakoff and Johnson’s metaphor model, it observes that AI is presented with a skeptical or cautionary tone, foregrounding possible effects on human cognition and creativity.
A spectrum of visual metaphors depicts AI as a reflective entity facing existential questions, a reflective thinker, a liberator or controller of human thought, an explorer navigating the labyrinth of human knowledge, the next evolutionary stage, a naïve mind burdened by human wisdom, an adventurer at new frontiers, a romantic hero of the past, and an agent capable of destroying human knowledge. Cartoonists mobilize strategies such as anthropomorphism, metaphorical representation, intertextuality, symbolism, irony, and humor to convey their ideological stances, underscoring the need for sustained ethical and philosophical reflection as AI becomes more embedded in everyday life.