From December 6th – 8th 2023 the Vancouver Island University Mike Taugher Theatre will host three free noon-hour performances of Two Truths and A.I., three 10-minute plays, two of which are written by students and the other written by A.I., but will audiences be able to tell which is which?
The show is a collaboration between two classes led by VIU Creative Writing and Journalism Professor Craig Taylor and Theatre Professor Leon Potter. Taylor’s class wrote two short plays and Potter had an AI tool write the third. The performance includes a discussion about A.I. in the arts. Audience members will also be asked to guess which play was written by the A.I.
Tickets are free and available through VIU’s Co-Curricular Involvement App. VIU students can use their computer library account to log in. Guests must click register and then sign up using their email address to get tickets. The Mike Taugher Studio is a smaller performance space and tickets are limited to 25.
Taylor and Potter combined their writing and acting student talents to draw attention to A.I.’s growing role in artistic creations.
“We just wanted to make sure audience members would have to think about which one seems to be written by A.I. and which one seems to be written by students” says Taylor. When Taylor did this experiment with his students, the AI model was easy to detect. “The test is now to use AI to ensure it’s not immediately noticeable which one is written by a computer.”
Time magazine reported AI technology had written a play two years ago and in the interim time the technology has only evolved further, becoming more versatile in its interactions with humans, so it may soon become difficult to distinguish which is real and which is fake/ artificially created.
A.I. technology is under pressure to produce results on par with, if not superior to, human-created work. “Every month I use the same prompt and the result is different. It’s more advanced, can be lengthier,” says Taylor.
Not only does it try to generate content like humans, but it is also designed to try and meet the specific needs of its users. For example, it may adopt some human characteristics that are compatible with its user.
“If you’ve got an A.I. that has an algorithm that is designed to know exactly what you like, and how you like it…what impetus is there to talk to people where you have to figure them out?” says Potter who worries A.I. will affect relationships as well as art. With the possibilities of this technology ever growing, there is no telling where it can go from here.
“I haven’t got a clue what’s coming down the pipeline… so we keep experimenting…we ride the wave. What’s coming up next? I haven’t got a clue. What is A.I. capable of? It’s capable of a lot!” says Potter.
Determining the pros and cons of A.I. in every situation requires vigilance to be sure it isn’t being used to harm, lie, cheat, or steal. If in doubt, verify!
