Can AI truly grasp the nuances of culture, history, and the unique spirit of a country?

BY SIMONE J. SMITH

We have to admit it, artificial intelligence is now the marvel of modern technology, and it has the potential to revolutionize countless industries. Yet, as it continues to evolve, a fundamental question arises: Can AI truly grasp the nuances of culture, history, and the unique spirit of a country?

The Writers Guild of Canada (WGC) recently undertook an intriguing experiment to explore this very question. By feeding iconic lines from beloved Canadian films and television shows into an AI language model like ChatGPT, the WGC aimed to assess the AI’s ability to “improve” these culturally significant phrases.

The results were, to put it mildly, underwhelming. When tasked with rephrasing lines to be more “entertaining” or “impactful,” the AI often produced generic, bland, and culturally tone-deaf responses. For instance, the iconic “Worst case Ontario” from Trailer Park Boys was transformed into the far less evocative “At worst, we’re looking at an Ontario situation.” Similarly, the whimsical “Hocus pocus alimagocus!” Today’s Special was reduced to the generic “Poof! Magic in the air!”

These examples highlight a critical limitation of AI: its inability to truly understand and appreciate the subtleties of human creativity and cultural identity. While AI can process vast amounts of data and generate text, it seems to lack the intuitive understanding of context, emotion, and the unique cultural references that makes organic content so special.

“We’re having a little fun at AI’s expense here, but no one wants to change an iconic line,” said Bruce Smith, President of the Writers Guild of Canada (WGC). “The AI ‘improvement’ results are funny, but the WGC believes that AI poses a serious threat to screenwriters and Canadian culture.”

So now the question is, how does AI threaten Canadian screenwriters? Well, there are a myriad of reasons; let’s look at the top four:

1. Reduction in work opportunities. AI will be used in place of human writers.
2. Threat to the craft of screenwriting. Anyone using AI to generate content can call themselves a screenwriter.
3. Reduction in compensation and credit. Screenwriters will be relegated to rewriting AI-generated content, resulting in reduced compensation and credit.
4. Unauthorized use of copyrighted content. The work made by screenwriters will be used to train AI without their consent, credit or compensation.

     “Not only does AI threaten the existence of Canadian screenwriters, but it also has the potential to erode – or worse, eradicate – the specific, unique, multicultural experience of being Canadian reflected to audiences in this country and around the world. No matter how much content is fed to it, AI can’t write from the culturally nuanced perspective of a human Canadian writer. And if the person who types a prompt into an AI chatbot happens to be Canadian, it’s not Canadian content that’s generated,” added Smith.

To address these concerns, the WGC is actively advocating on behalf of screenwriters at the bargaining table, with policy makers, funders, and industry stakeholders. The WGC has already achieved significant protections against AI in their Independent Production Agreement (IPA), such as:

• Producers must disclose when they are providing AI-generated materials for a writer to work from and contract Guild writers under the IPA.
• AI-generated content will not receive a credit, or compensation, and must not erode a writer’s rights under the IPA.
• Material written by Guild members under the IPA should not be used to train AI.

As AI continues to advance, it is essential to recognize its limitations and to guard against its potential to homogenize cultural expression. By understanding the unique challenges and opportunities presented by AI, we can harness its power while preserving the authentic voice of our creative artists.