Critical AI Literacies

In 2024, members of DISC launched a new initiative – the AI literacy working group – to address the urgent need to understand and theorise our engagement with AI in all spheres of social, cultural and political life. “AI literacy” (or even “literacies”) extends far beyond the technical understanding of how artificial intelligence and associated technologies work. AI literacy includes a novel theorising of risks and responsibilities that come with adopting AI tools into education; an analysis of new challenges that come with the automation of major political and business decision-making; challenges posed by AI to creative practice and intellectual processes; the environmental footprint of training and operating AI systems, and much more.

Critical AI Literacies is a key theme that consolidates many of our activities: for example, some of our public engagement work with AHEAD and the 2025 Digital Politics Summer School were both dedicated to visual AI literacies; including the Visual AI Literacy platform prototype, developed by Sam Martin, and the expert webinar on visual misinformation. ​

In 2025, we have formed the “AI Literacy Lab”, dedicated to developing AI Literacy toolkits across different disciplines (sociology, criminology, media studies, philosophy, fashion, education) and thematic areas, in collaboration with the South Asian illustrator and graphic recorder, Sonaksha Iyengar.