CrowdsourcedAi

an AI redemption gameifesto by Cliff Watson

The game where generative becomes human again.

Game Rules - An event-generation script

Introduction

Welcome, everyone, to an evening of CrowdsourcedAi!

Purpose of the game

CrowdsourcedAi is about collaboratively recreating AI content through a non-corporate lens. The content is rolled up to create a new narrative manifesto where humanity has been restored. The manifesto is jointly performed and celebrated.

Initial setup

The Instigator creates a Zoom meeting and Zoom Whiteboard. A free Zoom basic account is fine. A Zoom meeting is only required if players are remote.
Once you have created the Zoom Whiteboard, add a link to the game rules as follows:
- - Left-hand menu > More tools > Embed content: paste in this link, CrowdsourcedAi website, and save.
Share the link to the meeting with all of the players.
Players (members of the Playertariat) log into the Zoom meeting where they can open the QR code/link to the CrowdsourcedAi site.

Gameifesto

To set the mood, let's take turns reading paragraphs from the short Gameifesto (game-manifesto).

Roles and flow of the game

Now that we’re clear on what we’re facing, let’s take a brief look at the roles and flow of the game; these are detailed in later sections.

The Instigator (or game master) enrolls the crowd (the Playertariat) by soliciting Topics for discussion.
AI is invoked to generate rumination content about the chosen topic, which is shared to the CrowdsourcedAi gameboard on Zoom. A QR code shares game information with all players.
The Playertariat determines Themes of interest related to the Topic.
The Playertariat is broken into sub-teams.
The Playertariat determines interpretive Lenses with which to unsettle the Topic and Theme. Each sub-team rewrites this as a resistance query.
Individuals process their team's resistance query through a discussion framework while taking maximum advantage of creative liberty.
Team content is collected and reassembled into a new resistance manifesto.
The manifesto is presented by the Instigator and/or team spokespersons and celebrated. It can be printed and retained as a memento of this momentous recovery process.

Join the fun:

Topics

Instigator: (Sharing their screen) What shall we unsettle today? Popular culture? Ethics? Sports? International news? Music? Late summer gardening...?
The Instigator runs the following query in generative AI (e.g. https://www.bing.com/search ):

“Write me a table whose values that can be chosen at random by rolling a die. The table should contain 20 items that could be perceived as interesting or humorous discussion points for an evening of fun. These items should be dramatic enough that they could appear in a PG-13 or R-rated movie or encountered by a college student. Make sure to include a few contemporary issues around ethics and technology, a few issues around movies, and a few issues around politics.”

(You can try it below.)

The Instigator selects the table of results, then uses right-click > copy. They then display the whiteboard for everyone and paste the table onto the whiteboard.
Instigator: Here are some selected proto-Topics we could explore today. What do you think? Or… is there something else we should start with?
The Instigator enrolls the Playertariat into a proto-topic through discussion, guiding but letting the Playertariat choose how to proceed.
Instigator: Great! Let’s get a little more specific with this proto-topic to get some topic ideas.
The Instigator runs the following query:

“Write me a table whose values that can be chosen at random by rolling a die. The table should contain 20 specific examples of the type [insert PROTO-TOPIC here] that could be perceived as interesting or humorous discussion points for an evening of fun. These items should be dramatic enough that they could appear in a PG-13 or R-rated movie or encountered by a college student. Make sure to include a few contemporary issues.”)

Note 1: The Instigator pastes both the query and the table into the whiteboard.
Note 2: The Instigator repeats this refinement process until a suitable topic is found and accepted by the Playertariat. Note that queries can be changed as needed.

The Instigator copies/highlights the final Topic on the whiteboard.

Example:

“Write me a table whose values that can be chosen at random by rolling a die. The table should contain 20 specific examples of the type "the impact of automation on the film industry" that could be perceived as interesting or humorous discussion points for an evening of fun. These items should be dramatic enough that they could appear in a PG-13 or R-rated movie or encountered by a college student. Reference real movies in the results. Make sure to include contemporary issues.”)

In this example, the initial topic list of humorous or interesting points included “The impact of automation on the workforce” which was chosen by the Playertariat as the proto-topic. Running the next query on the proto-topic, the item chosen from the resulting table was, “The impact of automation on the film industry.” This query was expanded to include “real movie references.” At this point, someone in the Playertariat, inspired by the results, suggested looking at “the possible (fantastical) impact of technology on the Netflix series iZombie,” a series with a crime-solving zombie. Everyone was ok with that, and the game continued to Themes…)

Themes

Instigator: Fabulous! We’re thinking about [your Topic]! Now, let’s look at Themes associated with [your Topic].
The Instigator runs the following query:

“Write me a table whose values that can be chosen at random by rolling a die. The table should contain 20 specific themes, responding to the topic “[insert TOPIC here]”, that could be perceived as interesting or humorous discussion points for an evening of fun. These items should be dramatic enough that they could appear in a PG-13 or R-rated movie or encountered by a college student. Make sure to include a few contemporary issues.”

Instigator: (copying the query and table into the whiteboard) Here are some selected Themes to explore. What do you think? Or… something else?
The Playertariat: they divide themselves into sub-teams, with the Instigator’s help as needed. They also name their team.
Each sub-team picks a Theme, with the Instigator’s help as needed. If the choices are deemed unsatisfactory, the Instigator runs more queries to refine themes if necessary. Ultimately, each sub-team picks a Theme.
The Instigator bolds/highlights the chosen Themes in the whiteboard.
The Instigator also creates a new page in the whiteboard for each sub-team.

Example:

The Topic was “the possible (fantastical) impact of technology on the Netflix series iZombie.” The resulting Theme table included “The impact of social media on zombie culture,” which was chosen by the sub-team (named, "The Persimmon Yums") as their Theme.

The Instigator copies “The impact of social media on zombie culture” into the whiteboard and creates a new page for "The Persimmon Yums."

Lenses

Instigator: Splendid! We’re talking about [Topic] under the [List of chosen Themes]. Now, let’s pick Lenses to unsettle the themes.
The Instigator runs the following query:

“Write me a table whose values that can be chosen at random by rolling a die. The table should contain 20 specific intellectual, literary, social, and cultural lenses to examine the topic, “[insert THEME here]”, that could be perceived as contributing to interesting or humorous discussion points for an evening of fun. These items should be dramatic enough that they could appear in a PG-13 or R-rated movie or encountered by a college student. Make sure to include a few contemporary issues.”)

(Instigator copies query and table into the whiteboard)
Each sub-team picks a lens that they think will provide some interesting or humorous ways to examine their theme and topic. Again, sub-teams should take wide leeway in considering their lens-theme-topic combo, whether through allegorical, poetic, or other interpretive approach(es).
The Instigator bolds/highlights the chosen lenses in the whiteboard.

Resistance queries

Each sub-team constructs a resistance query to explore using the Topic, Theme, and Lens. They add this resistance query to their whiteboard page.

Example:

If the Topic is, “the possible (fantastical) impact of technology on the Netflix series iZombie,” the Theme, “the impact of social media on Zombie culture,” and the Lens, “fandom,” the resistance query might be “Thinking about fandom, and iZombie as an example, what is the impact of social media on Zombie culture in America today?”

Unsettling script

Each sub-team creates content on their page to respond to their query, building an unsettling-manifesto in the process. They can work together or separately – or both. They can use text boxes, upload images, draw pictures, write poems, include snippets of articles, and so on. The subteam has complete freedom to respond how they would like with three guiding principles:
- The sub-team should feel free to treat their query as an allegory for contemporary society, culture, politics, etc.
- Their resulting unsettling-manifesto should be a document that traces an argument or journey in some fashion through the question asked.
- The team should decide how to read the document at performance time.

This activity can take as long as necessary (20-30 minutes suggested).
TIP: Usually, you can drag-and-drop images from your computer onto the Zoom whiteboard. Sometimes, AI-generated images won't save to the whiteboard. A straightforward workaround I have found is to open the image in a simple photo app (e.g. Paint 3D) and save it to a new file. That new file can then be dragged onto the whiteboard.
If desired, you can add additional frameworks. For example:
- Everyone on the team first responds by adding an image to the whiteboard.
- Everyone starts with a 2 minute free write on the query.
- Everyone responds with a haiku then responds round-robin to two other people's poems.

Example:

Our zombie fandom team decides to discuss zombie-commuters fanboy/girl-ing over the new transit website. They consider the social implications of being captured on transit cameras doing the “zombie walk” after a 9-hour day in the office. This could include a diagram of the “dance steps” of the zombie commuter, an audio (performative) rendition of the exhausted post-work voice, and how they might solve crimes in such an exhausted state. The whiteboard starts off like this...

The reading

Instigator: Congratulations! You have completed the ironically AI-query-enhanced, group-think journey towards creating a resistance manifesto. You are both within the system and without; plugged-in yet squinting to read the results. Please have your cake and eat it too.
Manifestos are read aloud/performed, shared, and celebrated. Copies of the whiteboard are saved for posterity.

The Instigator exports the whiteboard to PDF or PNG. The whiteboard is available for further work in the Instigator's Zoom account.

Enjoy life. End game.

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