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CLIP models are a recent artificial intelligence (AI) innovation which train on massive amounts of Internet data in order to align language and image, deploying this \u2018grasp\u2019 of cultural concepts to understand prompts, classify images and carry out tasks. To critically investigate this cultural codification, we explore MetaCLIP, a recent variation developed by Meta. We analyse the model\u2019s metadata, a single file of 500,000 terms that aims to achieve a \u2018balanced distribution\u2019 or sufficiently broad understanding of concepts. We show how this model assembles histories, languages, ideologies and media artefacts into a kind of cultural knowledge. We argue this codification fuses the ancient technique of the\n                    <jats:italic toggle=\"yes\">list<\/jats:italic>\n                    with a more recent technique of\n                    <jats:italic toggle=\"yes\">latent space<\/jats:italic>\n                    . We conclude by framing these technologies as\n                    <jats:italic toggle=\"yes\">cultural machines<\/jats:italic>\n                    that exert power in defining and operationalising a particular understanding of \u2018culture\u2019 invisibly and at scale.\n                  <\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1177\/14614448251336429","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,5,21]],"date-time":"2025-05-21T03:23:24Z","timestamp":1747797804000},"page":"2673-2690","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1177\/sage-journals-update-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Culture machine: How MetaCLIP codifies culture"],"prefix":"10.1177","volume":"28","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-1018-7433","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Luke","family":"Munn","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"The University of Queensland, Australia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Adarsh","family":"Badri","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"The University of Queensland, Australia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"179","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,5,21]]},"reference":[{"key":"e_1_3_3_2_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1080\/17439884.2023.2280058"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_3_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1075\/aicr.46.21agr"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_4_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.polgeo.2024.103134"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_5_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1177\/0163443720919373"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_6_1","volume-title":"Introduction to Sociology: Understanding and Changing the Social World","author":"Anonymous","year":"2016","unstructured":"Anonymous (2016) Culture. 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