AI Imaginaries - The Role of (Social Media) Platforms in Shaping (Public) Future Perspectives of Technical Development

Artificial intelligence is considered a key technology today, even if it is interpreted in different and ambiguous ways. As AI products become part of everyday life, new fears of job losses and promises to lighten the workload are emerging, impacting major public investment in research and industry and being reflected in political discourse and legislation. The imagination and future perception of what AI can and should become has led to various developments that demonstrate the importance of social and cultural discursive imagination in envisioning and determining the development of AI and its integration into society through such imaginaries. Social media platforms such as Twitter, YouTube, and TikTok play an important role in this process as they function as both actors and spaces for ongoing AI discourse. This dissertation project therefore investigates the influence of (social media) platforms on AI imaginaries, taking into account various actors from industry, politics, media, academia and civil society. In particular, the concept of socio-technical imaginaries in general and platform imaginaries in particular offer useful perspectives for analyzing the characteristics and effects of imaginaries in the context of technological advances. As AI is in a formative phase – both as a technology and as an infrastructure – it is particularly important to understand how imaginaries influence economic, scientific and political agendas.