Tania Duarte (We and AI) - Exploring metaphors of AI: Visualisations, narratives and perception (online panel) [Hype Studies Conference 2025 presentation]

Misleading yet visceral metaphors of AI are evident in a proliferation of visual tropes and iconography, such as metaphors that leverage existing tendencies to attribute human characteristics to AI systems and tools - developing it into a visual language of extended anthropomorphism. Elsewhere, mystical and godlike associations are signalled through ubiquitous visual symbols such as magic wands and sparkles (representing generative AI).

This online session draws on explorations by the Better Images of AI community of how AI hype narratives derive power from metaphors, and invites insights from researchers and creatives working on the emergence and evolution of visual and narrative metaphors related to AI. They will present their research and artworks, and discuss what role they play in shaping our perceptions of AI. 

Presenting recent papers or artworks which address metaphors from the perspectives of public perception research, narratives, and critical generative AI literacy are:

·        Myra Cheng on "From tools to thieves: Measuring and understanding public perceptions of AI through crowdsourced metaphors"

·        Leo Lau from Mixed Initiative, sharing new visual metaphors of AI which counter existing ones

·        Rainer Rehak on "AI Narrative Breakdown. A Critical Assessment of Power and Promise. ACM FAccT '25"

·        Anuj Gupta and Yasser Atef on "Assistant, Parrot, or Colonizing Loudspeaker? ChatGPT Metaphors for Developing Critical AI Literacies"

Tania Duarte, Founder of We and AI will then be in discussion with Yasser Atef and Leo Lau and invite audience Q and A on topics including:

·        the use of visualisations and sensory objects to represent alternative, more appropriate metaphors as a way to debunk and replace misleading ones

·        the implications and cultural sensitivities of challenging metaphor with metaphor

·        The impact on public discourse about AI

The audience will be invited to suggest their own metaphors and share their ideas.

This panel will be fully online. In person attendees of the conference can join the stream in the corresponding room in the program. There is no limit to amount of participants.