Public AI Prize Category
Submit your original short fiction that helps imagine a positive future for humanity that foregrounds the potential of Public AI—and actionable steps to get us there.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is rapidly advancing, shaping our experiences of work, relationships, creativity, and community. Financial and environmental resources, policies, and norms are solidifying. Global society has many urgent, critical decisions to make. Compelling narratives and shared visions of the future we want and how to work towards it can help ensure that these decisions are made in ways that benefit us all.
Tech CEOs have the platforms to share their versions of our future AI world. Hollywood and news media dystopias are showing us others. These futures are not inevitable. Now it's time to share your Protopian Public AI vision.
Public AI is AI as public infrastructure:
Provisioned like electricity, water, roads, libraries, or the Internet itself. Public AI could be created by one or more governments working together, or through other collaborative and non-commercial entities with a mission to support the public good. Some basics about Public AI:
Public AI is publicly accessible:
ensuring AI delivers benefits to all.
Public AI is publicly accountable:
ensuring AI reflects society’s values.
Public AI creates permanent public goods:
ensuring AI is a reliable foundation.
Why?
As part of its mission to bring about a movement to support Public AI, the Public AI Network is hosting its first Protopian AI Fiction Prize. We hope to generate fresh narratives and bring more creatives into the global dialogue about the development of Public AI and our community.
​We're looking for short stories that:
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Incorporate positive visions of an AI-enabled future that foreground Public AI.
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Give us a north star, and ideas for how to move towards it.
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Help the public understand how we can shape an AI-based state for the public good.
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Bring to life the complexities, tradeoffs and paths of action to maximize human flourishing.
3
Inspire and empower us all to imagine and create the AI future we want.
Guiding Questions/Topics for Your Story
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How can we restructure AI development and deployment to serve rather than exploit human creativity?
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How can AI systems support human adaptability and climate resilience rather than enabling surveillance and control?
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What laws, institutions, or incentives are needed to ensure AI is used to augment human capabilities instead of taking away human jobs?
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What new imaginaries, institutions, mechanisms, or processes could enable creating synergies between social, technical, ecological, and legal design of AI systems?
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What needs to happen to give society as a whole, rather than a few powerful players, the deciding voice on what kinds of AI get developed and how they’re used?