Exploring the Reflective Space of AI Narratives Through Speculative Design in Japan and Germany

AI narratives are stories and ideas about artificial intelligence (AI). In this research, we ask how AI narratives from different cultures influence how people imagine future AI technology. A key role around AI narratives is played by design professionals, who help create applications and interactions with new emerging technologies and shape new public narratives about them. We drew on their expertise in a two-part study. First, we held workshops with young design professionals in Japan and Germany to see how they imagined the future of AI. Second, we also surveyed how a computer science audience reacted to the results of the workshop series in a follow-up survey.

Our findings help us to understand how people in different cultures think about and create AI narratives and imaginations. The results of our first study hinted that, in Japan, designer’s ideas were influenced mainly by pop-culture narratives and governmental agendas, while in Germany private companies played a big role. In our second study participants reported to be concerned about privacy, ethics, government control, surveillance and freedom of speech when thinking about the impact of AI on society.