Framework for Artificial Intelligence Storytelling

Preserving knowledge, enhancing mental health, and creating cultural connections through artificial intelligence, traditional art-making, and oral histories.
The Framework for Artificial Intelligence Storytelling aims to revolutionize conventional approaches to community art-making and cultural preservation by integrating oral histories, traditional narrative painting, and artificial intelligence. The goal is to create an accessible, cost-effective framework that alleviates mental health challenges such as anxiety and loneliness while preserving and sharing cultural heritage across generations.
A participant follows guided instructions to bring her lived experience to life in a painting.
Left: An AI generated image based on a participant's lived experience. Right: The participant's painting made from the AI generated image based on the participant's lived experience.
 Participants recount personal memories, which are then input into a text-to-image AI system to generate detailed visual images. These images serve as visual references for participants creating their own artwork in guided sessions with an instructor remotely or in person. The artworks, alongside recorded oral histories, are preserved digitally, ensuring the longevity and accessibility of the project for intergenerational and cross-cultural sharing. 
A participant collaborates with the instructor to edit the AI generated image.
Photos seldom capture our lived experiences; instead, they often depict a posed moment around the time of the experience. AI Storytelling allows us to bring precise lived moments to life, allowing the storyteller to personalize the AI-generated image to best capture the essence of their story.
The facilitator gives step-by-step guidance on how to make a drawing and painting of the participant's story. The class follows along as the instructor asks questions about the participant's lived experience. Their knowledge and story can be shared with the class, facilitating relationship-building and community connection as participants engage meaningfully with each other's narratives in a creative and supportive environment. All class members can draw and paint a new participant's story each session. Oral histories are recorded either during the class or separately from the class after the hand-made artworks are created.
The instructor illustrates step-by-step guidance to starting a drawing based on an AI generated image inspired by a participant's story.
Artwork from a participant telling the story of her mother teaching her a traditional family recipe for making masa on a metate and cooking the resulting tortillas on a traditional comal in their one-room house in El Salvador in the 1960s. The participant shared the artwork, digital image of the artwork, and the corresponding oral history recording (17 minutes) with geographically distant family members in Latin America.
Through this process, the participant not only gains proficiency in traditional narrative art making but also gets introduced to new technology. They also have the chance to share their original artworks or digital photos of their artworks with family members, along with a digital recording of the oral history that accompanies the artwork. This process not only preserves knowledge but also has the potential to connect communities and distant relations, as the artwork and its recorded knowledge can be shared with friends, family members, and even future generations.