This encyclopedia is a volunteer project by We and AI, with input from a wealth of experts in many disciplines.

It is just a start of an extensive resource that identifies, classifies, analyses, and explains AI metaphors. We welcome funding and volunteer support.

The visual identity, illustrations and sculptures present in the website are created by Harriet Humfress.

Why focus on AI metaphors?

1. AI is understood through metaphors. Because it is a new, complex, and hard to understand technology, we rely on metaphors to make sense of it.
2. Metaphors shape power, policy, and public imagination. Although we use metaphors every day, we are not always aware that they are seldom neutral. In the case of AI metaphors, these phrases influence how AI risk and governance are framed. By utilising metaphors without thoroughly examining them, we risk building a false and dangerous social reality around AI.
3. There was no systematic, accessible resource yet. The We and AI team, who are experienced at setting up such resources (such as Better Images of AI and the AI Resist List), identified an abundance of AI metaphors in the media, but no scalable method or shared classification framework for publicly tracking them. This is the problem this encyclopedia seeks to address.