Artificial Intelligence and New Voices in Environmental Campaigning

Abstract

This article examines the evolving campaign communication strategies of Greenpeace International. It is based upon an online ethnography of its Alternative Futures (AF) campaign: a campaign focused on challenging Western economic and political systems by promoting alternative futures shaped by equitable, collaborative and just social relations. One of its more innovative elements was the use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) technology to turn “text into art” and to create visual representations of progressive climate futures. Throughout, the article assesses the degree of congruence between the AF campaign’s internal statements of intent and the campaign’s AI generated images. Detailed multimodal social semiotic analysis of these images exposes limitations in the ability of AI to visually communicate the campaign’s stated objectives of “wellbeing,” “hope” and “system change,” as well as its ability to offer a space for marginalized climate voices, particularly those from the Global South.