Negotiating AI(s) futures: competing imaginaries of AI by stakeholders in the U.S., China, and Germany

Abstract

This paper examines how artificial intelligence (AI) imaginaries are negotiated by key stakeholders in the United States, China, and Germany, focusing on how public perceptions and discourses shape AI as a sociotechnical phenomenon. Drawing on the concept of sociotechnical imaginaries in public communication, the study explores how stakeholders from industry, government, academia, media and civil society actively co-construct and contest visions of the future of AI. The comparative analysis challenges the notion that national perceptions are monolithic, highlighting the complex and heterogeneous discursive processes surrounding AI. The paper utilises stakeholder interviews to analyse how different actors position themselves within these imaginaries. The analysis highlights overarching and sociopolitically diverse AI imaginaries as well as sectoral and stakeholder co-dependencies within and across the case study countries. It hence offers insights into the socio-political dynamics that influence AI’s evolving role in society, thus contributing to debates on science communication and the social construction of technology.