EDEN MILLS – The Eden Mills Writers’ Festival has cancelled a workshop featuring an AI chat bot author after receiving a swath of backlash from the literary community.
On Aug. 17, the festival posted a news release to social media stating they would not move forward with the workshop titled “Dear AI, Am I Talking to Myself?”.
“The intention was always to invite thoughtful dialogue about AI’s impact on writing, including its problematic elements and the ethical and social tensions it creates,” stated the release.
“We recognize that the way we introduced this event missed the mark.”
The backlash came on an earlier post promoting the inclusion of AI author n in the festival, which is a generative pre-trained transformer (GPT).
“AI learning models are entirely built on work stolen from writers who write their own work,” said Canadian poet Paul Vermeersch in the comments on the post.
“This is absolutely disgusting, and a profound insult to every writer you pretend to support.”
Comments of similar sentiment flooded the post.
The workshop was to be a demonstration of Aiden Cinnamon Tea by Shawn Van Sluys, executive director of the Musagetes Foundation, a Guelph arts non-profit.
Aiden Cinnamon Tea was also planned to be involved in the “We Are The Ghosts In The Machine” panel along with Van Sluys, where the AI would actually have an opportunity to speak in the panel.
After the backlash, the AI was removed, but Van Sluys was to speak about AI at the panel, which includes authors and AI ethicists. Van Sluys has since dropped out of the panel.
Jasper Smith, executive director of the festival, said he originally invited the creator of the AI, Vanessa Machado de Oliveira, but she was unable to attend, and Van Sluys was chosen as a “steward.”
“We thought it would be quite compelling, where we wanted to create a space where writers could wrestle with the cultural, ethical and ecological questions that AI forces on us,” said Smith.
“Not to celebrate it, but to confront it.”
Smith added he doesn’t think trying to hold the conversation on AI is a mistake.
“The initial way it was rolled out collapsed between an incorrect impression, but the response does show us how much grief, anger is in the literary community right now about this, and we take that seriously.”
Conversations on AI are still a part of this year’s festival.
The “We Are The Ghost In The Machine” panel is still running without Aiden Cinnamon Tea or Van Sluys, which the festival website says will “explore the porous borders between biological and artificial intelligence, memory and code, creativity and automation.”
Smith said in place of the original AI workshop, the festival will be holding an “AI concerns listening circle,” which will “create space to hear more of the grief, anger and questions that this technology is servicing for people while reaffirming our commitment to human creativity.”
“I think the backlash showed us that people want to have this conversation, and we’re not shying away from that,” he said.
