This study conducts a critical discourse analysis (CDA), drawing primarily on Norman Fairclough’s (2001) three-dimensional framework, to examine how power relations are negotiated through AI discourse in Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel Klara and the Sun (2021). By adopting the perspective of Klara, an Artificial Friend (AF), Ishiguro foregrounds the linguistic and ideological mechanisms that sustain hierarchical distinctions not only between humans and AI but also among humans themselves in a technologically stratified society. The analyses reveal how seemingly polite, affectionate, and “caring” discursive practices mask structural inequalities, commodification, and the devaluation of empathy in favor of technological “improvement.” Klara’s naïve yet acutely observant narration exposes subtle operations of dominance, obligation, and exclusion, forcing readers to confront their own complicity in systems that prioritize enhancement over compassion. The novel thus functions as both a warning about the ethical risks of AI integration and a broader critique of late-capitalist social order, where language naturalizes privilege and obscures dependency. Ultimately, Klara and the Sun suggests that power is exercised less through overt control than through the discursive construction of what (and who) counts as fully human. The study demonstrates fiction’s capacity to disrupt taken-for-granted assumptions about technology, agency, and shared humanity in an age of accelerating automation.
