AI Comes Out of the Closet: Using AI-Generated Virtual Characters to Help Individuals Practice LGBTQIA+ Advocacy
Daniel Pillis*, Pat Pataranutaporn*, Pattie Maes, Misha Sra
MIT Media Lab / MIT — ACM IUI (2024)
This online simulation uses the OpenAI API to drive motion-captured virtual characters in conversations about LGBTQIA+ experiences, particularly around coming out. The study with 307 users explores how these characters influence empathy, confidence, and advocacy through interactive dialogues with visual representation.
Storytelling through Multimedia
I collected public domain 2D animations comprising a geneology of CGI from 1963 to 1987, and used fragments of the animations to create a 3D environment for storytelling.
Ed Catmull’s 3D hand and Fred Parke’s 3D face were re-created in contemporary 3D software, and re-animated in an interactive 3D narrative environment.
Interacting in a 3D Timeline
Users explored a chronology of CGI history by retargeting their hand gestures via a Leap Motion Controller onto Catmulls’ “hand”.
The dialogue of the story was told by two bookended iMac G3 monitors, each animated by Parke’s faces, re-animated with the original Apple text-to-speech engine, “MacinTalk”.
A Spatial Narrative on Hardware
Using media artifacts with contemporary technology, the story of “The Machine Stops” was told through the medium of media archaeology.
