“Artificial intelligence” (AI) is often framed as an inevitable force—a future unfolding beyond collective control and concentrated in the hands of a technological elite. But what if AI futures were not something delivered to us, but something we could deliberate, contest, and build together? What if diverse publics could gather to imagine technological futures grounded in real societal and ecological needs, and chart practical pathways toward them? This session invites participants to affirm imagination as a collective practice. Through expert facilitation and participatory world-building, we will move beyond abstract optimism or dystopian critique, and instead co-define actionable, justice-oriented AI futures. The session unfolds in three interconnected phases: Discovery, Encounters, and Crafting.
Garcia et al. (Wed,) studied this question.