Generative visual AI tools, such as Midjourney and Dall-E, are increasingly shaping political action and democracy. Democracy studies have mainly treated the creation of synthetic images, videos and personae as a threat to key democratic values. Yet, we know very little of the empowering potential of AI, nor how people engaged in AI-aided political action evaluate and make sense of synthetic content and its role in democracy. The POP-AI project examines 'synthetic activism': explicit uses of generative visual AI in political action. By following projects where generative visual AI is used to visualize identities and lived experiences, it examines how activist groups use AI to imagine alternative futures and new political subjects, to protect people in vulnerable positions, and to visualize unseen identities and experiences. It asks how authenticity and agency are understood in these projects, and how democracy changes as their result.

2025

2029