Flattened futures: (strangely) governing uncertain AI futures in the UK and the Netherlands

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ABSTRACT Today’s public institutions are faced with vast uncertainty surrounding the development of AI technology. In light of this challenge, they have been making concerted efforts at imagining the AI future and its governance. This study sheds light on these current efforts in AI futuring. Dissecting Dutch and UK policy reports on long term AI governance, our analysis shows that while the UK’s dominant imaginary pushes an optimistic techno-solutionist roll-out of AI technology, the Dutch imaginary is more cautiously geared towards regulating and societally integrating AI. Interestingly, both case-studies exhibit relatively “flattened” forms of futuring that diverge from typical futuring work in terms of depth and detailedness. Hypotheses are explored to understand the observation of “flattened futuring” in the AI field.