Generative AI Landscapes

Between Environmental Awareness and Social Alienation

Abstract

Objective – To examine how generative AI landscapes can function as instruments of environmental and social awareness or reinforce processes of symbolic alienation.

Methodology – An interdisciplinary literature review combined with the analysis of news reports and case studies, including UrbanGenAI and environmental scenario simulations using landscape generative AIs.

Originality/Relevance – Offers an unprecedented discussion of the ambivalence of digital AI landscapes, intertwining aesthetics, politics, and ecology within a contemporary debate.

Results – Demonstrates that generative landscapes expand planning and awareness capabilities, yet may also foster illusions, greenwashing, and misinformation.

Theoretical/Methodological Contributions – Integrates concepts from geography, philosophy, arts, and technology, proposing a critical and comparative approach to the potentials and risks of AI.

Social and Environmental Contributions – Highlights the use of AI-generated images as pedagogical, political, and mobilization tools, provided they are applied ethically and responsibly.