This September, the Albert Hirschman Centre on Democracy at the Geneva Graduate Institute is launching a new scientific communication project dedicated to youth in Switzerland. We have two objectives: (1) raise awareness about the opportunities and issues of artificial intelligence for the Swiss democracy, and (2) about the plurality of futures and their important role in co-building these futures.

The project entitled “Stories of the Future: Youth Shaping the Role of Artificial Intelligence in Democracy” is distinguished by its innovative and creative methodology based on narrative foresight, storytelling, and the critical use of AI tools themselves, culminating in the production of stories of the future by young people. The project team designed this methodology to raise awareness of the role and ethics of AI among the Swiss youth – drawing, in particular, on UNESCO’s human rights approach to AI – as well as promoting imaginaries of positive and alternative technological and political futures.

This project funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation aims to make AI and its related issues more visible to the population and particularly to the first users of digital technologies and the future citizens.

Over 30 workshops will take place over the next 9 months in Geneva, Bern, Zurich, Ticino and other cantons representing all three Swiss linguistic regions. These are conducted by the project’s four team members:  Jerome Duberry, Christine Lutringer, Manuel Hubacher, and Laura Bullon-Cassis. In Geneva, workshops have already been conducted at the Collège Sismondi, the CEC Emilie Gourd, and the Collège Calvin. Each workshop generates between 3-5 stories. A sample workshop was conducted at the Geneva Graduate Institute as an event of the 2023 Democracy Week to introduce the methodology to interested parties in the Geneva canton.

In a later stage, the project will cooperate with art schools in three cantons to help young artists inspired by the stories illustrate them artistically and share their creations with the public.

Project partners include the Centre for Democracy Studies Aarau at the University of Zurich, the Geneva University of Art and Design (HEAD), and the Zurich University of the Arts School of Arts and Design of Zurich, and the University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland (SUPSI).

You can discover a selection of these stories below, to be published bi-weekly.

Stories

17.11.2023: The EcoVoice headphones in the year 2050

30.11.2023: The Chair of Wisdom

18.12.2023: Reflective Revolution: The Eclat de Justice Chronicles

10.01.2023: TurbineTraffic