Michael Daubs - Myths, Imaginaries, and AI Regulation

Tuesday 26th August 2025 10am NZT / 8am AEST QUAD 1 & on Zoom register here: https://forms.gle/1kDgBxySLceC6g7e9

Myths, Imaginaries and AI Regulation

Since the launch of OpenAI's ChatGPT in November 2022, concerns about the spread of disinformation and biases by artificial intelligence (AI), and a conflicting belief that AI can drive efficiency, productivity and innovation, have led to some international efforts to both regulate and encourage adoption of AI. This presentation discusses these two competing visions, or what Mosco (2004) calls ‘myths’ and Jasanoff and Kim (2019) call ‘sociotechnical imaginaries’. It argues that these imaginaries fuel regulatory approaches to AI, the consequences of which will only be evident once AI sheds the mythic sublime and becomes and enters what Mosco calls “the prosaic world of banality”. Ultimately, while the media of the future might be determined by technological innovation, the future of the media will be influenced by these regulations and what they restrict and enable.

Michael S. Daubs is a Senior Lecturer in Media, Film and Communication at the University of Otago and a co-director for Kōtaha—the Internet, Social Media and Politics Research Lab at Victoria University of Wellington. His latest research examines the spread of misinformation and extremist ideologies through online communities.

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