Synthetic Journalism

Mike Ananny, Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism
Matt Pearce, President, Media Guild of the West

A new political economy of journalism is emerging through the press’s encounters with GenAI, but this economy is nascent, susceptible to concentrated forms of power, and needing a proper airing – because it is not inevitable and is still alterable. We are in a brief window to show that GenAI journalism could be something other than what it currently is. This working group will (1) identify varied questions, perspectives, stakes, and frictions driving “synthetic journalism,” (2) commission, edit, and frame a set of essays from leading journalists and journalism scholars focused on tracing the political economy of synthetic journalism, and (3) publish and publicly present these essays in a practitioner-facing forum like the Columbia Journalism Review / Harvard’s Nieman Lab.

Generative AI and Copyright

Jen Petersen, Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism
Jef Perlman, Gould School of Law

Generative AI has a copyright problem. To produce text or images from prompts, large language models must draw on text and images mainly created by humans. Many of these works are copyrighted, resulting in the launch of lawsuits against OpenAI, Microsoft, Google, and other companies. However, perhaps copyright has a generative AI problem. The discussion of copyright and the suing of corporations raise novel questions about what constitutes creativity, how we define property in creative works – or in our images and visual and aural likenesses. These questions have the potential to shift the boundaries and logics of copyright law. This working group brings faculty from diverse departments together to ask questions about copyright, fair use, and new discourses of creativity.

Expressive Co-creation With AI Text Companions for Everyday Wellness

Aisling Kelliher, School of Cinematic Arts
Angel Hsing-Chi Hwang, Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism

This project explores AI text companions as a means for expressive co-creation with machines. Through the development of an experiential prototype, we examine how users express emotions, memories, and other internal experiences that might otherwise be difficult to process. We will invite potential users from diverse backgrounds to participate in the process of co-designing the prototype. Together, we look at the practice of expressing their murky experiences as a crucial first step toward everyday wellness and whether co-writing interactively with AI can offer relevant support.

TransQueerOS Lab

Kara Keeling, School of Cinematic Arts

The TransQueerOS (TQOS) Lab is inspired by Kara Keeling’s 2014 article, “QueerOS,” published in Cinema Journal (now The Journal of Cinema and Media Studies). Launched 10 years after the publication of that article, the TQOS Lab aims to gather theorists across disciplines, artists, designers, and media makers around a shared engagement with ideas related to the speculative possibility of a “TransQueer Operating System.” Participants in the TQOS Lab will be involved in producing research and scholarship as well as in experimenting with what the concept of “TransQueerOS” makes possible in practice.

Cinema’s Futures

Holly Willis, School of Cinematic Arts

Storytelling forms shift and change in relation to specific cultural moments. Today, we are at an important inflection point. As algorithms, AI, and computational systems increasingly mediate our experiences, they are also shifting the parameters of narrative. Algorithms don’t just suggest what stories we consume through recommendation engines; instead, they play an active role in shaping the stories themselves. This working group will explore emerging narrative forms in the context of generative AIthrough practices of making. The expected outcomes include a series of storytelling prototypes that exemplify new forms of narrative emerging in an algorithmic era. These prototypes will serve as both artistic explorations and research tools, allowing for a deeper understanding of how AI and algorithms are reshaping narrative structures.

Immersive AI for Creative Communities Featuring Spectra Studio

Qianqian Ye, School of Cinematic Arts/Spectra Studio
Ziyaad Bhorat, Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism
Carrie Chen, Spectra Studio
Harvey Moon, School of Cinematic Arts/Spectra Studio
China Bay Smith, Spectra Studio

Dominant narratives and visions of AI often sideline creative communities and multidisciplinary, multisensory ways of being and doing. We run the risk of monotyping our creative futures unless we can empower our creative communities working with AI to play, create, reflect, and even destroy. How can different disciplinary thinking and practice come together and create new AI experiences and reimagine collective futures? Our working group will aim to explore these threads by partnering USC AIMS with Spectra Studio to offer a series of workshops and panels culminating in a curated exhibition of works exploring how AI tools and platforms intersect with creative communities in Los Angeles.

For more information about USC’s AI for Media & Storytelling, click Learn More below.