La politica dell’intelligenza artificiale general purpose: immaginari sociotecnici, democrazia e policy frame nel processo decisionale della regolazione europea (“EU AI ACT” - 2022-2024)

The article proposes a dialogue between different conceptualizations of 'imaginary' and 'socio-technical imaginaries' and an interpretive analysis perspective of political processes to understand European artificial intelligence (AI) policy. The object of analysis is the decision-making process of the “EU AI Act”, approved in spring 2024. The investigation is focused on General Purpose AI and its consequences for democracy. The operationalization of the concepts shed light on the relationships between meaning construction and material stakes in the negotiations between political and social actors. The imaginary of 'risk to democracy' and the category of 'systemic risk' helped to structure the policy frame of the EU AI Act. The imaginary thus plays a role at once cognitive and normative in sense-making processes and social practices such as a policy process, helping to structure relations between subsystems of society (economic, social, cultural, techno-scientific, academic, political).