Donatella Della Ratta is a writer, performer, and curator specializing in networked technologies and generative AI, with a focus on the Arabic speaking world. Currently Associate Professor of Communication at John Cabot University, Rome, she is a former Affiliate of the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University. Della Ratta is the author of Shooting a Revolution: Visual Media and Warfare in Syria , and a co-editor of The Aesthetics and Politics of the Online Self: Exploring Networked Identities. From 2007 to 2013 she served as the Arab world community manager for the international organization Creative Commons. She has curated several international art and film programs, including Syria Off Frame in collaboration with the Luciano Benetton Foundation, Venice, 2015. She is co-founder and board member of SyriaUntold, recipient of the Digital Communities Award at Ars Electronica 2014, and a member of the advisory board of the Cinema Futures initiative at Locarno International Film Festival.

“Donatella Della Ratta is way ahead of the curve. This perception-shifting book cuts through the Silicon Valley and AI distortion field, enabling us to actually see reality and understand the apocalyptic stakes of tech-enabled far right authoritarianism. A must read.” —Astra Taylor, co-author of End Times Fascism "When the truth is an ocean of Western-backed atrocities from Gaza to Lebanon, the rise of Silicon Valley bros pushing AI falsehoods, distortions and dehumanisation should alarm us all. This timely and insightful book reminds us that reality is now under threat like never before, twisted and served up in pretty videos in the service of conquest and colonisation." –Antony Loewenstein, independent journalist, film-maker and author of The Palestine Laboratory "A sobering survey of how generative AI is being wielded in pursuit of violent and authoritarian ends ... Speculative Violence reveals the historical precedents behind the contemporary far-right's weaponization of novel technologies and urges us to take this threat seriously. An essential read."–Wendy Liu, author of Abolish Silicon Valley "If you thought you had a handle on how bad AI is going to be, Donatella Della Ratta has news for you: it's going to be much worse. Speculative Violence reads like a dystopian science fiction novel of the best kind, both scary and intriguing at once, showing how AI is capable of creating convincing images of violence, which in turn support ever more authoritarian regimes."–Nicholas Mirzoeff, author of To See In The Dark “Speculative Violence is an unsettling, incisive, and urgent exploration of how AI is being deployed to prompt, render and realize fascist futures predicated on supremacy and genocide.”–Alberto Toscano, author of Late Fascism

• Introduction: A New Politics of VisionLays out the book’s central argument and introduces generative AI as well as key theoretical terms and tools.Gaza Riviera: From Orientalist Fantasy to Synthetic “Ideoshock”Traces a continuity—both political and visual—between the Zionist and settler-colonial imagination of occupying land and building over it, and contemporary projects like “Gaza Riviera,” which present real estate development as peace, prosperity, and stability.“Rendering” the Apocalypse: Prophecy and Program, Faith and FramesShows how synthetic images operate as preparations for violence, making its outcomes imaginable in advance, paying special attention to the ways generative AI is deployed at the intersection of the tech industry, Christian eschatological beliefs, and military ambition.The Future Archive: Is it Really About the Future?Places AI within a longer history of visual technologies of surveillance and control, tracing continuities with earlier media such as photography while highlighting key breaks introduced by generative systems—especially prompting—which transform archives from records of the past into engines for producing new visual futures.Speculative Violence Beyond Israel-PalestineFrames speculative violence as a global dynamic that extends well beyond Israel-Palestine or traditional conflict zones. It identifies multiple instances in which generative AI is used by far-right movements in Europe and the United States to produce racist, exclusionary, and supremacist visions of the future, including within the MAGA movement and by President Trump himself.Conclusion: Seeing the Future Before it Sees UsWarns against dismissing synthetic visuals as mere memes, satire, or “AI slop,” argues for the urgent need to develop critical literacy around the visual politics of generative AI—which increasingly functions as a prophetic apparatus for today’s techno-authoritarian political projects—and situates the book’s argument in relation to the politics of futurity more broadly.

Donatella Della Ratta is a writer, performer, and curator specializing in networked technologies and generative AI, with a focus on the Arabic speaking world. Currently Associate Professor of Communication at John Cabot University, Rome, she is a former Affiliate of the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University. Della Ratta is the author of Shooting a Revolution: Visual Media and Warfare in Syria , and a co-editor of The Aesthetics and Politics of the Online Self: Exploring Networked Identities. From 2007 to 2013 she served as the Arab world community manager for the international organization Creative Commons. She has curated several international art and film programs, including Syria Off Frame in collaboration with the Luciano Benetton Foundation, Venice, 2015. She is co-founder and board member of SyriaUntold, recipient of the Digital Communities Award at Ars Electronica 2014, and a member of the advisory board of the Cinema Futures initiative at Locarno International Film Festival.

“Donatella Della Ratta is way ahead of the curve. This perception-shifting book cuts through the Silicon Valley and AI distortion field, enabling us to actually see reality and understand the apocalyptic stakes of tech-enabled far right authoritarianism. A must read.” —Astra Taylor, co-author of End Times Fascism "When the truth is an ocean of Western-backed atrocities from Gaza to Lebanon, the rise of Silicon Valley bros pushing AI falsehoods, distortions and dehumanisation should alarm us all. This timely and insightful book reminds us that reality is now under threat like never before, twisted and served up in pretty videos in the service of conquest and colonisation." –Antony Loewenstein, independent journalist, film-maker and author of The Palestine Laboratory "A sobering survey of how generative AI is being wielded in pursuit of violent and authoritarian ends ... Speculative Violence reveals the historical precedents behind the contemporary far-right's weaponization of novel technologies and urges us to take this threat seriously. An essential read."–Wendy Liu, author of Abolish Silicon Valley "If you thought you had a handle on how bad AI is going to be, Donatella Della Ratta has news for you: it's going to be much worse. Speculative Violence reads like a dystopian science fiction novel of the best kind, both scary and intriguing at once, showing how AI is capable of creating convincing images of violence, which in turn support ever more authoritarian regimes."–Nicholas Mirzoeff, author of To See In The Dark “Speculative Violence is an unsettling, incisive, and urgent exploration of how AI is being deployed to prompt, render and realize fascist futures predicated on supremacy and genocide.”–Alberto Toscano, author of Late Fascism

• Introduction: A New Politics of VisionLays out the book’s central argument and introduces generative AI as well as key theoretical terms and tools.Gaza Riviera: From Orientalist Fantasy to Synthetic “Ideoshock”Traces a continuity—both political and visual—between the Zionist and settler-colonial imagination of occupying land and building over it, and contemporary projects like “Gaza Riviera,” which present real estate development as peace, prosperity, and stability.“Rendering” the Apocalypse: Prophecy and Program, Faith and FramesShows how synthetic images operate as preparations for violence, making its outcomes imaginable in advance, paying special attention to the ways generative AI is deployed at the intersection of the tech industry, Christian eschatological beliefs, and military ambition.The Future Archive: Is it Really About the Future?Places AI within a longer history of visual technologies of surveillance and control, tracing continuities with earlier media such as photography while highlighting key breaks introduced by generative systems—especially prompting—which transform archives from records of the past into engines for producing new visual futures.Speculative Violence Beyond Israel-PalestineFrames speculative violence as a global dynamic that extends well beyond Israel-Palestine or traditional conflict zones. It identifies multiple instances in which generative AI is used by far-right movements in Europe and the United States to produce racist, exclusionary, and supremacist visions of the future, including within the MAGA movement and by President Trump himself.Conclusion: Seeing the Future Before it Sees UsWarns against dismissing synthetic visuals as mere memes, satire, or “AI slop,” argues for the urgent need to develop critical literacy around the visual politics of generative AI—which increasingly functions as a prophetic apparatus for today’s techno-authoritarian political projects—and situates the book’s argument in relation to the politics of futurity more broadly.