Co-creating Vocal Imaginaries with Conversational AIs

The mainstream conversational AI and voice-user-interface (VUI) design paradigms reinforce a human-centered vocal space and gendered affective relations. This paper explores novel vocal imaginaries towards critical engagements with these technologies for desirable planetary futures. We used AI as a co-creation partner in generating VUI futures, conducted a workshop with seven participants to incorporate human perspectives in the co-creation, and sonified the resulting imaginaries. We then reflexively analyzed these imaginaries in consideration of interaction design paradigms. We propose four design paradigms, accompanied by open questions to problematize current VUI design practices. Our findings reveal that generative AI may reproduce normative assumptions or remain narrow in vocal qualities due to the limited diversity in its Western-centric training datasets. However, when approached as a creative and reflective thinking partner rather than a solution-oriented collaborator, generative AI holds potential for critical engagements with existing design paradigms towards novel vocal imaginaries.