Planet stories: Using AI-generated science fiction to externalise conflict by Andrea Ng

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign. Hello, thank you for listening to my sharing. I am Andrea Ng. I live and work in Hong Kong. Today. I would like to share how I used AI technology the chat GPT 3.5 story writing in my practice. I am a student of Master of Narrative Therapy and Community work now in 2023 and this is a sharing I've done to my teachers and my classmates before. Thanks for giving me this opportunity to share again here with you and I apologize for assumptions I have made about how the understanding of the terms I used in narrative therapy and practice in this sharing. I hope this sharing finds you well. I want to talk about how I used the Planet method for externalizing conversation to respond to conflicts in relationships through the use of AI the ChatGPT in my practice of narrative therapy. I really love externalizing conversation when the problem is the problem, the person is not the problem. I also learned that externalizing conversation or works well in response to conflicts in relationship from my previous learning and practice because instead of internalized language that assuming people are born with some particular personality traits or characteristics and usually lead to labeling and stigmatization of the other in conflict, externalization created a distance and help us to deconstruct the rich meaning and values behind the socially constructed concepts of characteristics and trends. Because in my study we are encouraged to innovate. So I tried to implement the IT with my practice. I usually worked with women and families with children or teenagers diagnosed with or autism when they were very young. This sharing is about a lovely woman I am working with who is very generous to have let me share her story and our journey with AI story writing. Here I'll use a pseudonym, Amy to represent her. When I told Amy my idea of using AI to write a Planet story in a science fiction format to respond to conflicts in in relationship, she said yes and she is quite excited to give it a try. Then I started by asking her anything she thought that was difficult and conflicting in her relationship with her husband. Amy then shared her story that her husband always wanted to arrive early. Amy, on the other hand, didn't see the urgency in being on time and preferred being relaxed. She felt that being a little late didn't matter much since Amy had a child, now a teenager with special needs and the daily responsibilities made it challenging for her to be punctual. Amy's role as a mother and key caregiver added to the difficulties to meet expectations of being on time. Then I asked Amy if I could write a story for her now using ChatGPT and in my smartphone, and she Agreed. I asked her what name she would like to give to this planet and what kind of people or aliens were living in this planet. Amy said then maybe Lanes. She thought it was quite funny to create a story about a planet called the Lanus Planet where people were always late there and it was normal to be late there. I input the request into my phone asking ChatGPT to help us write an imaginative science fiction story about this planet of lameness. I requested ChatGPT to fill the story with imagination and fantasy, with details of the culture and daily activities of the people in this planet. We were in excitement and curiosity because we did not know what would be created in just a few seconds. ChatGPT generated a story since the story was a bit long, so I only picked part of it I found interesting to share with Amy and asked whether she liked that or not. So the story portrayed to people on the Lanes planet as relaxed and unhurried, always taking their time to walk or or sit in public spaces without rushing. When I read the story, Amy laughed and enjoyed it a lot. This resonated with Amy and she especially loved the plot when the story highlighted the people in this planet had the ability to work well under pressure as the inhabitants of the planet often had to rush to accomplish tasks despite being late. They were so skilled at remaining calm in stressful situations thanks to their experiences of handling various challenges caused by lateness. This perspective opened Amy's eyes to her own ability to handle multiple unexpected events and remained calm and I asked her to tell her own story about them and she did. She realized that how she treated time not just brought trouble and conflicts, but indeed helped her develop valuable skills because of the planet metaphor is about a planet and a culture. Amy further discovered that this ability seemed to run in her own family, noticing that her brother, parents and even relatives exhibited a tendency to act spontaneously without being overly concerned about time. This realization came to her when she in recent years taking care of her brother's children where she observed similar patterns of last minute rushing out from home. This conversation made her aware of the strengths of her origin family members and at the same time the shift of her role when she were affected by their different concepts of time. She sometimes felt annoyed and disturbed too. I then asked when Amy would like to create a story for the characteristics she observed in her story about her husband. Initially she started with a punctuality planet, but the output from ChatGPT is not very satisfactory because she finds that her husband's punctuality was not because of money and economic benefits, but he want to be respectful to people and also he did not like to be in a rush. For example, she told me that they needed to always run to the destination because they were late. Here I observed that even when ChatGPT did not give a satisfactory story, it was still meaningful because the person could reflect on whether it fit or not with her story and thus richer and deeper meaning making were made possible through the interaction during the process. And I always emphasize that these stories were not authoritative but rather imaginative ideas only and could be modified based on the person's thoughts. And since ChatGPT could create stories and make amendments in a fast speed, it was very very okay to ask it to write again. So Amy decided to rename the planet as the Impatience Planet because she find the description nearer to her experience with her husband. Then chatgpt rewrote the story about the Impatience Planet. I read all parts of the story related to Amy's thoughts. Amy felt that the story captured the husband's impatience and anxiety accurately. In the story, the reason for the impatience was because these inhabitants of the planet find it difficult to adapt to changing environment and didn't possess the same ability to quickly adjust like the planet lateness inhabitants. The story explained how the transitions and challenges caused significant stress for the people, made them anxious, stressful and felt disturbed, leading them to prefer earlier arrival to avoid anxiety and impatience. Amy reflected that the story made her understand more from from her husband's perspectives. His annoyance might have a reason and she could understand him better now. Then I asked Amy if she was interested in creating a love story involving the characters from the Impatience and the Late Penis. She said yes and excited to read the output, I inputted the request to ChatGPT, especially asking it to be creative and to give out details and dialogues and fill it with emotions and feelings and design a scene about a conflict and how it is resolved and I read out the story. We were amused by the outcome. The male protagonist from the Impatience Planet was very impatient who wanted to finish things very quickly, but the female protagonist was from Nanus planets always walked leisurely without feeling time pressure. Amy laughed when she heard this part as she could relate to it a lot. The story then talked about them arranging an interstellar journey. The male protagonist said they must reach a certain planet within a week otherwise they will miss something. He kept urging the female protagonist, but she said in a leisure way that it was not a problem and they still had time. No need to be so rushed they could slow down and enjoy the trip. During my reading of the story. I asked how Amy felt. She said she resonated with the story without feeling uncomfortable. Instead she find it very funny. Then I continued with the reading of the story. Their conflict finally led to mutual understanding. Although they were so different since they both valued each other through communication and understanding they finally find a balance. They could seize time and at the same time enjoy the trip. I then asked Amy if she has had similar experiences of them finding cromble mice. She said yes and she said this was a long problem for them for over 20 years, but it had improved a lot in recent years. Her husband still did not like to rush but no longer get so angry with her and because she loved her husband she did not want him to feel anxious. So she gradually proactively changed by leaving home earlier. I asked her what she had done to leave home earlier. She told me that she would adjust her clock to be showing faster time and then she also discussed plans earlier with her husband so everyone was on the same page and rushing was avoided. And she communicated better with her husband about all the stuff she needed to take care for the their son so her husband had more understanding with her now. I asked about the unique outcome if she had an experience where they were both very happy when they were out together. She said yes. Once she managed to arrive a lot earlier to their destination. The early arrival made them very happy as her husband felt relaxed and they could have breakfast together. I asked how she felt when her husband didn't get angry. She said she could smile contentedly without annoyance, which was rare and made her very happy, especially when they were with their son. There was no pressure but a harmonious atmosphere. If her husband was not in a rush, I asked her to give a name to the story she told. She said harmony and she felt the strength in their relationship that although they were different, they both paid a lot of efforts to change themselves and accept the other and in future, because of the love for the family and the love for harmony, she was willing to leave home earlier and be on time. More. I thank Amy to have shared her beautiful story with me and I'm touched by the love and effort they put in building a harmonious family under such great stress. In this experience, I felt it was particularly special when the AI created his new story. We were all very curious because we could not predict the outcome. It brought a sense of tension and excitement for Amy and me. I also realized that I need to constantly emphasize that AI story writing is not authoritative. We could modify the story and in some other occasions when I came across some contents not quite suitable. I will tell the person and edit the story before telling it. It is because as the position of me as the interviewer, I am responsible, not the AI. There is no guarantee that the output is harmless and is meaningful to the person person. If some contents may upset or hurt the person, it should be carefully handled. Actually in one occasion the output of the story was not satisfactory. So I, with the knowing and consent of the interviewee, put aside AI and just went on with the re offering of the story of the person. And there might be a temptation to make the person fit in the AI but not vice versa. So it should be emphasized that AI was a tool in our conversation. The person and the development of preferred story identity and their knowledge, skills, hopes and dreams is always the key. Thank you for listening to my sharing and it is just a very initial trial on the use of AI technology in my practice. I'm waiting for more exploration and innovation from you or maybe from me in the future. Thank you. [00:16:13] Speaker B: Thank you for listening to this podcast from International Journal of Narrative Therapy and Community Work, published by Dulwich Centre Foundation. More about this recording and a treasure trove of articles, videos and multimedia works are available from narrativetherapyjournal.org it's all free to access and share with no login required. Dulwich Centre is located on the land of the Kaurna people with we acknowledge the traditional owners of country and pay respect to elders past and present.

Planet stories: Using AI-generated science fiction to externalise conflict by Andrea Ng

Show Notes

Chapters

Episode Transcript

Other Episodes

Wisdom on living with loneliness by Chelsea Size

On critical thinking by Mary Heath

Caring for trans community by Tiffany Sostar