Contesting AI Futures: Social Movements and the Solarpunk AI Imaginary

In recent years, the Italian government has intensified its investments in Artificial Intelligence (AI), exemplified by the development of national large language models and the utilization of the Leonardo supercomputer. Alongside these state-led initiatives, grassroots actors have mobilized to contest dominant narratives positioning AI as a driver of competitiveness and economic growth. This article examines how Italian social movements articulate alternative sociotechnical imaginaries of AI and emerging digital technologies. Drawing on participant observation, interviews, and activist documents collected between 2023 and 2024, we employ inductive thematic analysis to explore how activists critique existing AI systems and envision socially just futures. Our findings identify three co-existing imaginaries—AI Utopia, AI Dystopia, and Solarpunk AI—that both challenge prevailing governmental discourses and experiment with grassroots technological agency. By centering activist perspectives, the article contributes to scholarship on sociotechnical imaginaries and highlights how movements reimagine AI through lenses of justice, sustainability, and democratic participation.