Conceptually informed by sociotechnical imaginaries, this article asks how visual generative artificial intelligence (genAI) is viewed by those who adopt or resist this technology, and why, drawing evidence from YouTube discussions. Firstly, visual genAI is framed as a natural progression of technologies that enhance creativity, increase productivity, and democratize art, echoing the prevailing narratives of Silicon Valley. Secondly, visual genAI is discussed in relation to critical concerns such as job displacement, no compensation for artists, and the rise of industrial art. Despite these divergent viewpoints, a collective effort to negotiate ethical AI adoption emphasizes accountability from AI companies, updates to existing regulatory frameworks, and alternative solutions to reclaim the human element in genAI cultures. The findings suggest that while visual genAI can indeed enhance creative practices, data value extraction must be repudiated to prevent market power concentration by those who frame this technology as a tool for the imagination while excluding the creators whose work these “tools” are built on. The article offers empirical insights into how different social groups advocate for or resist visual genAI, stimulating critical debate on its status and integration into cultural production and society at large.

To the general public, text-to-image generators, such as Midjourney and DALL-E, seem to work through magic and, indeed, their inner workings are often frustrati...

As part of the 2025 Digital Politics Summer School, we held a roundtable discussion exploring Visual AI Politics//Politics of Visual AI. In case you missed it, you can watch the […]

24-27 June, online Our Digital Politics Summer School is celebrating its fifth anniversary! This year, the school is focusing on visual generative AI. Details of speakers, call for workshop participat...

23-27 June, online Our Digital Politics Summer School is celebrating its fifth anniversary! This year, the school is focusing on visual generative AI. Details of speakers, call for workshop participat...

Power needs abstraction, to make the unwieldy complexity of the social world legible and manageable. The proposition at the heart of Seeing Like a Platform is

Since the unprecedented agreement that the Writers Guild of America (WGA) managed to negotiate in relation to the use of generative AI in the workplace in ...

12th International Conference on Multimodality in Groningen

As repositories of national culture and consciousness, the libraries and archives of Ukraine have become a target of Russian aggression.

How can we critically and creatively engage with generative AI across text, images, and videos? This workshop, part of the initiative by the Jantina Tammes...

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Trump’s federal cost-cutting - led by Elon Musk's Doge – has now hit the unit helping rescue Ukrainian children taken by Russia

AI syllabus (Mar 2025) AI and reality https://pca.st/episode/4c263872-a108-4c1b-8fdf-d35ffa36d39c AI definitions 🎙️The Data Fix with Dr. Mél Hogan Defining, with Ali Alkhatib E51 (2025) https://pla...

Musk’s loyalists at DOGE have infiltrated dozens of federal agencies, pushed out tens of thousands of workers, and siphoned millions of people’s most sensitive data. The next step: Unleash the AI.

SEMINAR: Stefanie Duguay on Why Tinder matters, hosted by the Digital & Social Media team at UTS School of Communication (free)