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Introduction: Reading Barthes Through the Machine When Roland Barthes announced the “death of the author,” he shifted the focus of literary interpretation from the creator to the reader. In today’s digital landscape—where intelligent programs compose poems, essays, and scripts—his insight acquires renewed significance. In a world shaped by generative software, the relevance of Barthes’ key concepts—intertextuality, authorship, the multiplicity of meaning—becomes increasingly apparent. This article explores how Barthes’ semiotic vision not only anticipates but helps us make sense of the textual conditions produced by artificial intelligence. Intertextuality and the Algorithmic Remix At the core of Barthes’ thought is the principle of intertextuality—the idea that every piece of writing is a mosaic of preexisting expressions. “The text is a tissue of quotations drawn from the innumerable centres of culture,” Barthes declares in Image, Music, Text (1977). For him, originality is an...