Speculative Fiction for Interdisciplinary, Proactive, and Publicly Engaged AI Ethics

Paper Title

Speculative Fiction for Interdisciplinary, Proactive, and Publicly Engaged AI Ethics

Publication Info

• Topic area: Interdisciplinary methods for proactive AI ethics using speculative fiction.
• Keywords: Speculative fiction, AI ethics, interdisciplinary collaboration, HCI, proactive ethics, community engagement, creative writing, participatory design, technologists, public scholarship.

Background and Problem

• Problem / challenge: AI development often prioritizes rapid technological progress over ethical and societal considerations. Artistic voices, particularly those of creative writers, are underrepresented in AI ethics discussions, and existing participatory methods often fail to empower participants as creators or collaborators.
• Significance: Including creative writers in AI ethics discussions can provide unique perspectives and thought experiments to anticipate and mitigate potential harms of AI technologies. This approach can broaden AI literacy and foster proactive ethical development.
• Motivation and related work: Speculative fiction has been used in HCI for participatory design and futuring, but primarily as a method for eliciting user feedback rather than empowering writers as expert collaborators. Prior research has explored writers' insights about AI tools and ethical concerns but has not leveraged their creative expertise for proactive ethics.

Solution

• Proposed approach: Community-based speculative fiction workshops engaging creative writers to explore AI ethics topics and advocate for interdisciplinary collaboration between writers and technologists.
• Novelty:
  1. Development of a method for community-based speculative fiction workshops, including a website and print anthology.
  2. Argument for including writers as expert collaborators in HCI research beyond participatory roles.
  3. Guidelines for interdisciplinary collaboration between writers and technologists for proactive AI ethics.
• Procedure and key techniques:
  • Seven-part workshop series covering themes like algorithmic bias, surveillance, disinformation, deepfakes, data privacy, worker exploitation, and accessibility.
  • Collaborative autoethnography (CAE) with workshop participants to reflect on experiences and analyze creative outputs.
  • Creation of a website and anthology to host and promote writers' works and provide financial compensation.

Results

• Concrete findings:
  • Increased confidence among workshop participants in discussing AI ethics topics.
  • Creative outputs from workshops highlighted diverse perspectives on AI ethics, including algorithmic bias, surveillance, and healthcare applications.
  • Writers valued community engagement and the opportunity to channel fears about AI into creative expression.
• Advantage over baselines:
  • Moves beyond traditional participatory methods by empowering writers as creators and collaborators rather than research participants.
  • Provides pluralistic perspectives through speculative fiction, enabling proactive ethical considerations for AI technologies.
• Experiments / evaluation:
  • Seven workshops with 15–18 participants per session.
  • Analysis of creative outputs through reflexive coding and collaborative discussions.
  • Publication of 20 speculative pieces in an anthology, with financial compensation for authors.
• Limitations and future work:
  • Negativity bias in case studies presented during workshops; future iterations could include more positive examples.
  • Limited time for writing during workshops; extending session duration is recommended.
  • CAE insights are limited to four writers from a single writing community with STEM backgrounds, which may not represent broader perspectives.

Summary

This paper introduces community-based speculative fiction workshops as a method for interdisciplinary collaboration and proactive AI ethics. By engaging creative writers as expert collaborators, the approach leverages their unique skills in storytelling and thought experimentation to explore pluralistic futures and inform ethical AI development. The workshops increased participants' confidence in discussing AI topics and produced diverse creative outputs that reflect individual positionalities and values. The authors propose guidelines for collaboration between writers and technologists, emphasizing respect, transparency, and mutual learning. Future work should expand the scope of workshops and investigate broader applications in corporate and academic settings.