Longing for an AI Winter—Beyond Techno-Utopia, Towards a Return of the Personal

As a technology that is not yet stabilized and may never be, anxieties and expectations around AI are circulating rapidly. They often oscillate between utopian and dystopian framings, in which AI is either framed as the savior or as the ultimate danger. This resonates with discourses surrounding the internet in its early days. We are not witnessing the first AI hype or myth; earlier summers and winters happened in the second half of the 20th century. In its focus on what AI can do and produce, contemporary discourse is complicit with meritocracy, privileging outcomes over process. How to resist, twist, or ignore the workings of AI and its impact? This article argues for a refocus on the process of reading, writing, and working together, in which the articulation of one’s own voice is pivotal.