Pioneer communities, loud and quiet futuring, and the demystification of AI: an interview with Andreas Hepp

This commentary introduces Prof. Andreas Hepp’s forthcoming book Pioneer Communities (Polity, 2027) through an in-depth interview on his current views on artificial intelligence (AI), Silicon Valley, and the wider geopolitics and communication of technological futures. The conversation develops three arguments. First, so-called ‘tech giants’ should be demystified as many of them rest on comparatively small core groups and communities, as well as on investment, infrastructures, state relations, and persuasive narratives of the future. Second, contemporary AI discourse is shaped by a tension between loud futuring, performed for publics, politicians, and investors, and quiet futuring, cultivated within communities such as rationalists, effective altruists, makers, and AI safety networks in response to ‘P(doom)’, the estimated probability of an AI-induced catastrophe. Third, the future of AI should not be reduced to a US-China race but involve across actors such as Europe, Africa, and other parts of the Global South.