How this Project Has Used Generative AI

I've used generative AI in a few ways for this project, particularly with the aim of getting word out about the coming parliamentary changes and my story.

What Is Generative AI?

You may have heard of ChatGPT or even that you can now use a computer to fabricate a convincing image of the Pope. This is generative AI. This is a form of artificial intelligence, or AI.

As Eben Carle from Google explains, AI often now refers to machine learning, which gives computers "the ability to learn from examples". Carle goes to say that generative AI essentially uses what it has learned to generate something. This learning often involves the creation of AI models using large amounts of information. These models allow computers to generate text, images and more.

How Has Lines in the Sand Used Generative AI?

As noted, I've used generative AI in this project in a number of ways, but mainly to help distribute the story at the centre of the project and the news about the coming parliamentary changes. The list here is purposely descriptive for the sake of transparency.

The Story

The three part story on Southport and the parliamentary boundary changes includes a few AI generated images. During the final stages of the production process, I also started using the Bing Chat search engine tool, which uses GPT-4, the latest generative AI model behind ChatGPT. However, I used this tool as a search engine rather than as an aid to produce text or images. I didn't use generative AI to produce any of the written text in the three parts of the story.

In particular, the AI generated images in part one include the pictures of David Cameron, Nick Clegg and Boris Johnson in the Grand Redesigns section. The creation of these images involved generating stylised portraits of the three individuals with the Stable Diffusion model from Stability AI. I also modified these images in Photoshop to make them conform to a similar style.

Part three includes one image, which I used to illustrate the digitisation of the media industry. This image, which you can see below, was created by DALL·E.

Podcast

The Voices Unheard podcast trailer was created with the use of several forms of generative AI. I created the script for the trailer by adapting the introductory section of part 1 of Lines in the Sand with ChatGPT, using its GPT-4 model. I did so by asking ChatGPT to turn the text into a podcast script, which I subsequently checked over. In addition, I used Descript to create a clone of my voice and used this tool to create the voice audio you can hear in the trailer. Finally, I used the AIVA AI generation too to create the music for the trailer. I also created the podcast image on Stable Diffusion.

I created the text for the UK's Political Map Redesign newsletter by again adapting the introductory section of part 1 of Lines in the Sand with ChatGPT, using its GPT-4 model. I did so by asking ChatGPT to turn the text into a newsletter. Like with the podcast, I lightly edited the resulting text with the aim of checking for inaccuracies and other issues. The image for this newsletter was created by Stable Diffusion.

Game

I created the Create a Seat game using Bing Chat. In particular, I used a prompt inspired by Pietro Schirano to ask Bing Chat to provide the JavaScript and HTML for a game based on the number of parliamentary voters each constituency in the UK now needs to have. As well as making a few changes to the text and code provided by Bing Chat, I also updated the original code created by Bing by using ChatGPT.

Social Media

I've also used ChatGPT, with its GPT-4 model, to draft social media posts from the Lines in the Sand story text. Any social media posts that are created this way are highlighted as such on the relevant platform. Like with the other uses mentioned above, I check the text for any post before it is used.

This list may be updated as necessary.

Get in Touch

Why Does this Project Use Generative AI?

I've decided to use generative AI in this project because of some of the problems set out in part three of the Lines in the Sands story.

While back in Southport and looking into the parliamentary boundary changes, I saw how there's been a decline in local news coverage in the UK. Not everyone seems to be getting the news they need to stay informed about even key local matters. If people don't know about what's going on, this could harm their ability to have a democratic say about what shapes their lives and communities.

Generative AI is not free from issues and its use free from risks. To provide one quick example, the Reuters Institute suggests that AI generated images, like the one of the Pope, might have implications for our ability to tell fact from fiction and efforts to tackle disinformation. Still, the technology is popping up in many places. You can even find it on popular language app Duolingo. I've been trying to see if generative AI may provide some solutions for the challenges outlined above and what these may look like.

If you have any feedback on these issues, please get in touch.