Poster authors: Dr Emma Clarke (presenter), Nic Flanagan, Helen Sheridan, Tania Duarte

If you’ve ever done a quick image search for “Artificial Intelligence” you’ve probably encountered some of the following: glowing brains, white humanoid robots, a tangle of circuit boards. While visually impactful, these images do not truly represent the AI technology we interact with daily – the AI that powers our phones, our cities and increasingly services like healthcare and banking. These sci-fi tropes create a significant disconnect in how we perceive and understand AI.

This very disconnect was the driving force behind ‘The Bigger Picture’ poster presented at the Public Communication of Science and Technology (PCST) 2025 conference in Aberdeen, Scotland.

Building on the excellent work of the Better Images of AI project, ‘The Bigger Picture’ is a collaborative, interdisciplinary initiative uniting artists, designers, AI researchers, and public engagement experts in an effort to create a more representative and accurate visual narrative for AI.

Poster (click to view large)

A research poster titled "The Bigger Picture: Re-imagining AI Imagery" presents a detailed overview of a project challenging misconceptions about AI through creative visual storytelling. The poster, designed with distinct sections, features text, images, and diagrams on a grid-like background with a subtle pixelated pattern. Sections include: Header: "The Bigger Picture: Re-imagining AI Imagery" with the project logo and names of key contributors: Emma Clarke, Niamh Flanagan, Helen Sheridan, and Tania Duarte. Background: Explains the project's aim to use interdisciplinary research to improve public perceptions of AI, moving beyond stereotypical images. Why are current stock images of AI unhelpful?: This section highlights problematic visual tropes used to represent AI, such as: "THE CREATION OF ADAM": Depicts humans and robots touching hands, suggesting AI is magical or uncontrollable. "ANTHROPOMORPHIC ROBOTS": Shows human-like robots, reinforcing a global AI dominated by specific companies and demographics. "SCI-FI IMAGERY": Focuses on glowing brains and sci-fi visuals, often from movies, reinforcing the idea of AI as futuristic or abstract. "GLOWING HUMAN BRAINS": Emphasizes AI as a brain, often with a blue glow, perpetuating the idea of AI being purely intellectual or mystical. How can we create images of AI that represent the technology?: Details The Bigger Picture approach, including community-based co-creation workshops, interdisciplinary approaches, exhibitions, and a website/zine. Why does this matter?: Discusses the negative impacts of current AI imagery, such as misleading information and lack of diverse representation. The Bigger Picture Images In Use: Shows examples of how images from The Bigger Picture are being used to demystify AI. Visual Representation of AI: A section discussing visual common representations of AI, such as human-like robots, glowing brains and binary code. References: A list of academic citations.