Generative AI and Broken Futures

Abstract

In this article we consider and demonstrate the use of Generative AI (GenAI) in the design of qualitative futures research materials. We discuss how GenAI, and the speculative futures stories that it can be trained to generate, can be engaged to invoke people’s experiences and imaginaries of possible futures. We focus on how GenAI stories can be employed to enable a corrective perspective of anticipatory realism , to disrupt dominant narratives, illuminate the brokenness of possible futures, and invoke proposals for their possible repair. We draw on the example of research into automated and robotic work futures in Australia’s construction industry.