AI & Conflicts 02 – by Daniela Cotimbo, Francesco D’Abbraccio and Andrea Facchetti

AI&Conflicts 02 is not just about artificial intelligence as a technology, but as a power structure reshaping economies, cultures, and systems of representation. The book explores the so-called “AI summer,” examining the tensions between the techno-utopian narratives pushed by big tech and the political, ethical, and aesthetic frictions that emerge from them. On one side, AI operates as an extractive engine, transforming labor, creativity, and knowledge through proprietary and opaque systems. On the other, artists and theorists respond with resistance and redefinition, imagining situated forms of AI that challenge dominant paradigms. Through interdisciplinary perspectives, the volume navigates colonial datasets, gender bias, and the appropriation of visual culture, questioning what authorship and creativity mean in the age of machine learning. AI is not a neutral oracle—it’s a contested terrain where imaginaries, epistemologies, and political choices collide. This book offers critical tools to engage with it from within. With contributions by Pasquinelli, Buschek & Thorp, Salvaggio, Steyerl, Dzodan, Klein & D’Ignazio, Lee, Quaranta, Atairu, Herndon & Dryhurst, Simnett, Woodgate, Shabara, Ridler, Wu & Ramos, Blas, Hui