Situating generative AI within diverse cultural contexts: Challenges and trajectories

Generative AI “is still most often discussed in the singular”, even as it is acknowledged as a global phenomenon (Natale et al., 2025). We align with these authors’ calls to situate AI in diverse cultural geographies and to treat culture as central to knowledge-making and ways of life.

Whether ongoing AI development will follow this path is uncertain. Reflecting on Third Age technologies, McKenzie (2025, July 23) argues that social media firms prioritized building platforms and audiences before investing in the “civil infrastructure” (norms, ethics, cultural practices) required for public benefit. The open question is whether current AI developers–companies, institutions, and coalitions–will repeat that sequence or embrace co-governance and localization from the outset.

If Fourth Age digital technologies are to serve diverse communities, developers will need to recognize plural “AI cultures” (Natale et al., 2025), not a single default; establish frameworks and processes for participatory data/tuning governance; and evaluate digital technologies by their interactional and cultural outcomes, not just against benchmark scores.