Hi, I'm Brandi. The creator of AI AustenVerse.
The AI AustenVerse project explores the intersection of classic literature and modern artificial intelligence, bringing Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice” into the digital age. This transmedia project leverages AI technologies such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and DALL-E to create immersive experiences that allow users to engage with the characters and storyline of “Pride and Prejudice” in innovative ways. Through the creation of a dedicated website, AI-generated art, and an interactive chatbot, the project demonstrates how AI can be used to breathe new life into historical texts, making them more accessible and engaging for contemporary audiences.
By integrating AI into the interpretation of “Pride and Prejudice,” AI AustenVerse aims to provide a unique platform where users can interact with the novel’s characters, explore the narrative through AI-generated illustrations, and experience the story in a dynamic, digital format. This project not only highlights the potential of AI in literary analysis but also underscores the timeless appeal of Austen’s work, showcasing its relevance and adaptability in today’s technologically advanced world.
Project Part One: AI AustenVerse
The first portion of my project is the website: https://AiAustenVerse.com which was co-coded with ChatGPT. All art and images (including site logo) on the website were created by AI via DALL-E. AI AustenVerse (AIAV) serves as a platform on which the other two portions of my project exist: a P&P ChatBot and P&P by GPT the story of “Pride and Prejudice” as illustrated and portrayed by OpenAI platforms ChatGPT and DALL-E.
Project Part Two: P&P ChatBot
In the first part of the project, I utilized the OpenAI API to develop a chatbot that allows users to engage in conversations with characters from “Pride and Prejudice”. The method involves sending a coded request to the OpenAI API with a prompt to chat with the user as a user-selected character from “P&P”. The prompt sent to the API from the chatbot is: “You are $(character} from Pride and Prejudice. Respond to the user as this character. Place heavy emphasis on speaking using the vocabulary and style of dialog used in the text. Make sure all your responses conform to a max of 150 tokens.” By defining the prompt sent to the API the user experience is preserved and reflects a close-to-authentic conversation from the context and viewpoint of a character from the novel. The character bios (images and text) were generated via text chat with ChatGPT (model 4o): https://chatgpt.com/share/afbcb56a-706d-4f4c-a270-2495f402603f.
Project Part Three: P&P by GPT
The second part of the project involved using ChatGPT and DALL-E to recreate the story (in short) of “Pride and Prejudice” and to create images that correlate to each event. The ChatGPT request can be found here: https://chatgpt.com/share/065bf721-826c-4649-b175-048312ba15b2. While chats with DALL-E that include images can't be shared the process involves selecting notable moments from the ChatGPT conversation and asking DALL-E to create images to illustrate those events. Prompt sent to DALL-E for image creation followed by a list of events: “Please make me an ink drawing for each of these [provided] events in Pride and Prejudice. Please don't stylize the images except rendering them as ink drawings.”
Reflection on Transmedia Genres
Transmedia genres of literary works allow a text to live beyond the time and space in which it was originally created. By utilizing AI to explore “P&P” I sought to utilize modern technology to 1) create a space in which the characters and context of “Pride and Prejudice” can live within a modern context and 2) explore how well AI can represent a historical piece. Reflecting on the project I found that AI can nearly accurately generate imagery and capture the main plot points of the text. Unlike the Lizzy Bennet Diaries (LBD) I chose to preserve all aspects of the storyline and characters in their original time-related form while depicting them within a modern medium highlighting the contrast of the historical and modern.
While LBD aims to engage users to tell the story of “P&P” from a new perspective my focus was to explore the use of AI to bring life to the characters of “P&P” within the digital realm. Especially with the P&P ChatBot I feel this aim was particularly successful. By engaging characters of the story through chat one can gain insight into a character’s motives thoughts and understanding of their world. Any potential bias user input bias or inaccuracy in the chat model aside the use of the P&P ChatBot allows the user to study the text on a different and deeper level. Through the creation and implementation of AIAV I demonstrated how transmedia adaptations especially those supported by AI can create dynamic platforms aiding in the accessibility of literary texts and create immersive experiences in which users can engage them.