Bing Chat. The Great Worldbuilder

[Ban]

I've been playing around with Bing's Chat on its creative mode to see how well it can handle worldbuilding and I must say I'm impressed. Today I asked it to envisage a syncretism between Norse and Inuit cultures and religions, including the outlines of two syncretised sagas and the possibilities for a modern state in this alternate history. You can read its ideas for yourself as I've attached a pdf to this thread that includes the entire conversation.

All in all, I think Bing Chat can be a great worldbuilding companion to bring along one's writing journey. The AI provided me with a number of interesting suggestions and proved to be rather creative in the way that it did its comparisons. I imagine that especially for alternate history writers the chat can help outline a number of different potential paths to take. Of course it is still up to us writers and worldbuilders to put Bing's suggestions together (as it should be, let's not become entirely lazy) but I think a bit of brainstorming here and there with the AI can prove useful for even veteran (albeit hobbyist) worldbuilders such as yours truly. And of course you should continue to do your own research, as the possibility for mistakes always exists. I caught the AI suggesting that Odin could have a raven as one of his companions instead of a wolf, whereas in Norse mythology Odin already has two raven companions called Huginn and Muninn. That's a very minor nitpick that shouldn't be considered a slight on the AI, but it is an instance in which having a prior understanding of the subject remains valuable.

What are your thoughts on and experiences with the AI and its worldbuilding capabilities?

 

[pmmg]

Why are you needed again? And how long will that last?

 

[Ban]

Please let's not be doom and gloom Pmmg, the AI works off of inputs and only provides suggestions. I'd rather discuss the questions I started this thread for instead of talking about the trajectory of AI if you don't mind. Other threads have already addressed that.

 

[Rexenm]

There are a few funny AI applications popping up around the place, none so important and necessary as face reconstruction surgery, for obvious reasons. So we can be like Shepard from ME2! Who doesn’t need to be like Shepard? Because, it’s a whole new world, don’t you dare close your eyes, a new fantastic point-of-view! I’m going to check out your attachment now.

 

[Finchbearer]

As a Mac user I’ll probably never use it, unless I want to faff around with creating a Microsoft account, but I’m curious. Could you ask it to create a magical world using Celtic and Norse mythology please?

 

[Ban]

As a Mac user I’ll probably never use it, unless I want to faff around with creating a Microsoft account, but I’m curious. Could you ask it to create a magical world using Celtic and Norse mythology please?

All you need for Bing Chat as far as I know is microsoft edge which from what I found can be installed on a Mac.

 

[Finchbearer]

I’ll take that as a no then lol

 

[Devor]

Most of my world building is done, or well on the way, so that's not the kind of thing I've been asking it for. I did try asking for magic item ideas, but I didn't get anything decent.....

Okay, since I've learned how to get more from it since then, I just tried magic items again with a better prompt (Design ten original magic items inspired by Irish mythology). Damnit they're pretty good. I'll need to experiment with it more.

What I have been doing, since I realized it can generate images, is tinker with ideas for older web project. The idea was to merge narrative with artwork, but it required too much art. Now all of that art might be doable. I wonder if it's possible to generate the same character in the same art style doing different poses. *sigh* Probably not in the Bing version.

 

[Ban]

So far the image generation on Bing seems to be a secondary function, which is powered by Dall-E. While I love its inclusion, I reckon it would be better to find a dedicated app for it if you want to reuse the same character. Its competitor Midjourney should be able to do that, although it is a paid service after the first couple of free images. Might be worth it.

The text generation on the other hand has made giant leaps from what I can gather. I've had multiple conversations with the chat where it is able to recall details established many comments prior. I think that's the main achievement of GPT 4, and a welcome one at that.

 

[Devor]

Reusing the same character in different poses may not be essential for the web project, but I do need some pretty specific things I'm not sure it can do. I haven't gone back through my notes on the thing, but I also don't want to get too distracted from my current priorities.

 

[pmmg]

Yes, I can pop around and say...look, AI can do this, and AI can do that. I am interest in what 'you' can do.

The more you use AI to do your creative thinking for you, the less I am going to think of your role in it. Ppl can choose not to care. But for me, my own personal integrity, and what I want to be able to say about my own creations means AI does not have much role. It is not what I want to present to the world.

But, I am in edit mode right now, when I get to make the marketing materials, Ill probably see what AI has to offer.

 

[Ban]

Having used it quite a bit now, I disagree that it does your creative thinking for you. What it does is provide you with a wide range of possibilities to get your creative mind going. If anything, GPT raises the floor for a writer or worldbuilder so they can reach greater heights at a faster pace. I think the pdf I have attached shows this to be the case, as the AI gave a range of suggestions in a timeframe that would otherwise have required hours of brainstorming. If anything, it allows experienced worldbuilders to see a number of possible courses so they can jump right into the meaty part of worldbuilding.

But be that as it may, I mostly just want to marvel at the technology.

 

[Rexenm]

Can someone explain to me the three laws of robotics, again? I think it is definitely a beautiful medium, but it may just be Skynet. Think about it, you have the deep, deep, the sun, moon, and stars, then there is A’Tuin and the disc world, of course. It all seems so familiar to me. There is the make believe aspect, of all the possibilities of a story, that weird gimmick you ask a question of, and it will give you the answer in say 9 tries, so is duality either side of luck? Is that how it works?

 

[Ban]

Having used it quite a bit now, I disagree that it does your creative thinking for you. What it does is provide you with a wide range of possibilities to get your creative mind going. If anything, GPT raises the floor for a writer or worldbuilder so they can reach greater heights at a faster pace. I think the pdf I have attached shows this to be the case, as the AI gave a range of suggestions in a timeframe that would otherwise have required hours of brainstorming. If anything, it allows experienced worldbuilders to see a number of possible courses so they can jump right into the meaty part of worldbuilding.

But be that as it may, I mostly just want to marvel at the technology.

But of course it is important to give credit where credit is due as well. If the AI aided in the development of a world or story, it is good practice to be explicit about this.

 

[AiosChrome]

I intend to use a chatbot to assist with research and inspiration for the minor aspects of my world.

 

[Prince of Spires]

I've mentioned it elsewhere already, but I think AI can be a great tool for writers to bounce ideas against. The given example shows how you can start with a vague concept and get some input. It helps with idea generation, and it gives possible directions. In that way I think it can help writers create more diverse and unique, but also better worlds.

Research has shown over and over again that the more ideas you generate, the more creative the outcome becomes, and the more ideas you generate, the more likely you are to have a great idea. AI then is a great tool to help in that phase. If you're stuck or if you're unsure in which direction you should take a story, you can bounce ideas against it. And as long as you're a bit creative with your input, you should get creative enough output which you can then build on further.

It's definitely not ready to write full novels. It's not even close. And I'm not sure the current technology will get there any time soon. But it's great as an assistant.

I caught the AI suggesting that Odin could have a raven as one of his companions instead of a wolf, whereas in Norse mythology Odin already has two raven companions called Huginn and Muninn.

This is actually the biggest threat I see in AI. It has become an answering machine. You no longer have any idea where the answer comes from or a way to check its accuracy. Just extrapolate the use of AI a bit, to where it plays the same role as google does now. You go there, type in a question. But instead of google giving you a range of websites with possible answers, you get THE ANSWER. It's fast, it's convenient, but it's also dangerous.

The subconcious biases of the programmers in such tools are already well documented. But if people start trusting these, then just think of the levels of misinformation you can spread without your users realizing. Filter bubbles on google (and other platforms) are already a big issue. Just think what an AI can accidentally proclaim as the truth. And now think about what intentional tampering could do. Either the company trying to steer public opinion in a certain direction, or nation states...

That actually might be a great basis for a near future SciFi novel...

 

[Ban]

To be fair Prince of Spires, regarding its accuracy and knowing where its responses come from, Bing does list its sources in its replies and highlights them in the texts with little numbers to indicate which source was used where, so it is possible to check whether or not these sources are reliable and to what extent they are applicable to one's question for further research. That's a massive step up compared to Bard.

 

[Prince of Spires]

That's indeed a step up from what I've seen so far. Though I doubt that many users will check all the underlying sources.

As mentioned, it's a problem that already exists to some extent today. Research during the pandemic showed that if you start out with a new account online, that it only takes a handful of clicks before you're stuck inside a bubble on places like Youtube and Twitter, where you're mainly shown specific conspiracy theories. If people attribute AI with a sort of omniscient, unbiassed and accurate view of the truth then that can get a lot worse.

 

[Demesnedenoir]

Yep, that's me. Since my editor uses Word, I already have MS 365, so it's easy.

All you need for Bing Chat as far as I know is microsoft edge which from what I found can be installed on a Mac.

 

[Demesnedenoir]

Only those trapped in the bubble already will ever think AI is unbiased.

That's indeed a step up from what I've seen so far. Though I doubt that many users will check all the underlying sources.

As mentioned, it's a problem that already exists to some extent today. Research during the pandemic showed that if you start out with a new account online, that it only takes a handful of clicks before you're stuck inside a bubble on places like Youtube and Twitter, where you're mainly shown specific conspiracy theories. If people attribute AI with a sort of omniscient, unbiassed and accurate view of the truth then that can get a lot worse.