Minding the gap(s): public perceptions of AI and socio-technical imaginaries

TLDR

The social dimension of AI is an emerging focus, with narratives shaping how society perceives and organizes technology. The study advocates an “AI for people” approach, emphasizing a socio‑technical perspective that centers individuals’ awareness, knowledge, and emotional responses to AI. The authors analyze prevailing utopian and dystopian narratives about AI and robots, examining how gender, generation, and competence shape awareness, knowledge, and emotional responses. The Bologna study reveals varying levels of AI awareness, knowledge, and anxiety, highlighting differences by gender, generation, and competence and underscoring the need for sociological inquiry.

Abstract

Abstract Deepening and digging into the social side of AI is a novel but emerging requirement within the AI community. Future research should invest in an “AI for people”, going beyond the undoubtedly much-needed efforts into ethics, explainability and responsible AI. The article addresses this challenge by problematizing the discussion around AI shifting the attention to individuals and their awareness, knowledge and emotional response to AI. First, we outline our main argument relative to the need for a socio-technical perspective in the study of AI social implications. Then, we illustrate the main existing narratives of hopes and fears associated with AI and robots. As building blocks of broader “sociotechnical imaginaries”, narratives are powerful tools that shape how society sees, interprets and organizes technology. An original empirical study within the University of Bologna collects the data to examine the levels of awareness, knowledge and emotional response towards AI, revealing interesting insights to be carried on in future research. Replete with exaggerations, both utopian and dystopian narratives are analysed with respect to some relevant socio-demographic variables (gender, generation and competence). Finally, focusing on two issues—the state of AI anxiety and the point of view of non-experts—opens the floor to problematizing the discourse around AI, sustaining the need for a sociological perspective in the field of AI and discussing future comparative research.