What if AI...?

From myth to insight

With the undeniable presence of AI in society and the growing attention it receives in the media, it is important to break through the mythical nature of AI and foster inclusive conversations about it. Although everyone, consciously or unconsciously, makes use of AI, few people truly understand how this technology works or how to relate to it: should we be concerned, or does AI offer solutions to major societal challenges?

This project stems from the curiosity to ask: to what extent does the frictionless design of AI tools contribute to the sense of AI’s elusiveness? And how can we facilitate conversations about AI that go beyond its mythical nature, while helping to strengthen people’s sense of ownership over the future of AI?

Making the invisible visible

This project is part of the broader research program AI, Media & Democracy. It focuses on developing and testing methods to facilitate inclusive conversations about AI. We design methods that aim to make explicit the emotions, myths, and needs surrounding AI that would otherwise remain unspoken. We also seek to highlight what often remains invisible in the functioning of AI: the labor behind AI, the data people unknowingly provide, and the creative work appropriated and imitated by AI systems.

How?

In the first phase of the project, we are developing and testing several creative methodologies:

• Provocatypes (provocative prototypes): designing AI systems that are deliberately less frictionless. By integrating micromoments of friction, we create opportunities where the normally invisible and nearly imperceptible workings of AI become tangible and noticeable.

• Digital collages: by inviting people to create an image of AI, we encourage them to visualize and articulate what often remains latent. Such as their ideas, worries, grief, and needs in relation to AI.

• Public space installation/intervention: an installation that surfaces and shares ideas, feelings, and imaginations about AI in the public domain.

Ultimately, our goal is to open up the collective conversation on AI, not to criticize it, but to expand the sense of ownership people have over AI. This begins with talking about what we do not know about AI, how we feel about it, and what we collectively want from it. In doing so, we aim to help ground the development and application of AI in our shared societal wishes, rather than leaving it driven solely by what is technologically possible or commercially beneficial to a small group of stakeholders.

Partners

Beeld & Geluid (Sound & Vision); KB, National Library of the Netherlands; NEMO Kennislink

AUAS Team

• Maaike van Cruchten – Project owner

• Nelson Tausk – Student assistant

• Frank Kloos – Project officer

• Tamara Witschge – Professor of Practice