From AI imaginaries to AI literacy

Based on the results of a qualitative study on how migrants experience technologies of automation in everyday life, the article describes users’ imaginaries of artificial intelligence as the overall technology behind different digital media applications. This encompasses the subjective idea of users about what AI technology is, what it can do, and what it should do. All respondents share a general understanding of AI as a feeling and awareness that the technology has its own logic of some kind, as articulated in recommendation algorithms on TikTok, YouTube or Netflix, language correction on WhatsApp or email programs, translation apps, but also in voice assistants like Amazon Alexa or Siri. By analytically linking the two concepts of AI imaginaries and AI literacy, a perspective is developed that focuses on culturally-shaped ideas about technology and the subjectively perceived agency is thus analyzed in the context of the technologies of automation.