  Generative AI techniques like those that synthesize images from text
(text-to-image models) offer new possibilities for creatively imagining new
ideas. We investigate the capabilities of these models to help communities
engage in conversations about their collective future. In particular, we design
and deploy a facilitated experience where participants collaboratively
speculate on utopias they want to see, and then produce AI-generated imagery
from those speculations. In a series of in-depth user interviews, we invite
participants to reflect on the generated images and refine their visions for
the future. We synthesize findings with a bespoke community zine on the
experience. We observe that participants often generated ideas for implementing
their vision and drew new lateral considerations as a result of viewing the
generated images. Critically, we find that the unexpected difference between
the participant's imagined output and the generated image is what facilitated
new insight for the participant. We hope our experimental model for
co-creation, computational creativity, and community reflection inspires the
use of generative models to help communities and organizations envision better
futures.
