The Reversal of Visibility

Abstract

.Transparency is repeatedly invoked as a foundational requirement for ‘trustworthy’ artificial intelligence (AI), yet the term is often treated as self-evident. This article argues that transparency is conceptually plural, ethically ambivalent, and—under contemporary digital conditions—capable of producing a reversal of visibility: persons become increasingly exposed and predictable, while the infrastructures that classify and steer them remain partially opaque. Using conceptual analysis in dialogue with empirical research in critical transparency studies and AI ethics, the paper (1) distinguishes key meanings of transparency (notice, explainability, auditability, and accountability), (2) shows how datafied environments generate epistemic asymmetries and diffuse responsibility, and (3) interprets these dynamics through a science-and-faith lens by contrasting ‘omniscience without grace’—knowledge detached from relational responsibility—with theological accounts of hiddenness, dignity, and moral agency. Against both naïve demands for total openness and cynical acceptance of black-box governance, the paper proposes a norm of proportional transparency: transparency where it protects persons and enables contestation, and justified opacity where it safeguards intimacy, conscience, and human flourishing.