Anima Mundi: The Soul of the World Meets the Machine

Donor Name: AI Hub for Sustainable Development

Reference URL:https://aihubfordevelopment.org/anima-mundi-the-soul-of-the-world-meets-the-machine

Anima Mundi invites digital visual submissions from individuals, start-ups, and communities worldwide to illuminate how cultural traditions can guide responsible AI governance through art and storytelling.

Launched at the 81st UN General Assembly High Level Week and aligned with the Italy-Africa Mattei Plan, Anima Mundi: The Soul of the World Meets the Machine is a global initiative that brings together communities, start-ups, and industries to explore how mythologies, cosmologies, and living traditions can inform the governance of artificial intelligence. The program seeks to create a library of digital visual works and accompanying narratives that connect cultural wisdom to real-world AI decisions, fostering a global dialogue on responsible AI development.

Submissions are open to all countries, with particular priority given to the G7 and the 18 Italy-Africa Mattei Plan partner countries, and especially encourage participation from young people, engineers, designers, researchers, and founders actively engaged in building or deploying AI systems. Each submission must pair a myth or tradition from the applicant’s own culture with a concrete AI decision or moment, such as clinical decision support, agricultural alerts, data governance, or algorithmic impact, and provide a written account of the governance choices, actors involved, and lessons drawn from the tradition.

All accepted works will be preserved in a permanent, open online library, forming a global commons of tradition and testimony on AI, accessible to policymakers, engineers, community leaders, and researchers. The initiative emphasizes authentic cultural relationship, human-centered storytelling, and the discipline of questioning as essential to AI governance, rather than seeking universal answers or abstract representations of technology.

Submissions must be digital visual works (including illustration, photography, generative art, or digitized painting/textile) accompanied by a description of up to 500 words. All works are held under Creative Commons licensing and treated as a public good with attribution to the author. Volunteer support is available for those facing barriers to digital submission, and questions on eligibility or the submission process can be directed to the program’s contact email.

For more information, visit AI Hub for Sustainable Development.

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