Generative AI Futures: A Speculative Design Exploration

What generative AI futures do we want—and what futures do we not want? To imagine what might exist in the future, we apply speculative design to explore plausible scenarios for generative AI and human coexistence. In this paper, we present gAIrden and Onion AI: two in-progress speculative concepts of future generative AI tools, their use cases, and the systems in which they exist. We analyze the designs through lenses of Environment, Data Privacy, Embodiment, and Play. This trip into the future is driven by the research question: how might generative AI tools change how we produce creativity and culture? When we return to the present, we ask ourselves, how might generative AI support positive outcomes for individuals and communities? Can we predict (and potentially mitigate) negative consequences of generative AI tools? The speculative designs purposefully engage viewers in futures thinking to reclaim conversation around the future of technology.