The Road Ahead: Building Community-Led AI Futures

Exploring the future of participatory AI, creative sovereignty, and resilient digital communities.

As artificial intelligence rapidly transforms society, this workshop asks a critical question: what happens when communities build their own AI futures instead of adopting systems designed elsewhere? Hosted by the Art Borups Corners Living Lab, this forward-looking session explores emerging possibilities for grassroots AI research, creative collaboration, and decentralized cultural infrastructure.

This informal and fun session will discuss how AI may reshape arts organizations, education, archives, rural economies, and participatory research over the coming decade. The workshop also examines the opportunities and risks surrounding automation, digital dependency, misinformation, and extractive technology models — while proposing alternative approaches rooted in openness, collaboration, and community stewardship.

The session concludes by exploring future directions for the Living Lab itself, including artist residencies, open-source creative tools, youth mentorship initiatives, and cross-disciplinary research partnerships. Rather than treating northern communities as passive recipients of innovation, the workshop positions them as active leaders in designing more ethical, inclusive, and culturally grounded technological futures.