Harnessing Adaptive AI to Transform Narrative Creation
Emerging Practices in AI-Enabled Storytelling is a dynamic knowledge exchange and participatory applied AI research program that explores how artificial intelligence and immersive technologies are transforming narrative creation, production workflows, and creative labour across the arts, publishing, film and media. The program convenes researchers, artists, technologists, and educators to identify shared challenges, experiment with innovative practices, and translate insights into actionable strategies for creators and cultural industries navigating rapid technological and creative change.
This year, the group explored how AI-assisted storytelling, script development, virtual production environments, and intelligent post-production tools are turbocharging creative experimentation while streamlining technical, administrative, and logistical processes. Beyond these innovations, discussions emphasized the urgent need for new training approaches, ethical frameworks, and authorship guidelines to ensure that AI-enhanced storytelling remains human-centred, culturally responsible, and inclusive, supporting the evolution of creative ecosystems in thoughtful and equitable ways.
We are deeply grateful to the researchers, practitioners, and creative collaborators who have contributed to this ongoing dialogue, bringing their expertise, curiosity, and critical perspectives to the forefront. Their commitment to thoughtful, accountable, and human-centred innovation is helping shape the future of AI-enabled storytelling and creative practice across cultural sectors. This work continues to evolve as part of our Fall and Winter 2025 program, offering new opportunities for experimentation, skills development, and interdisciplinary collaboration that push the boundaries of narrative, technology, and creative impact.
Mapping Our Data: A Visual Journey
Almost seven million words of stories, images, outlines, treatments and scripts were analyzed as part of this program.
Collaborative Practices for Research and Innovation in Storytelling
As a comprehensive skills development and participatory research initiative, the program encompassed a wide spectrum of creative and technical learning opportunities. Over six months, artists, creatives, and researchers engaged deeply with generative AI concepts, experimented with building custom GPTs, and applied agentic design principles to collaborative storytelling and narrative projects. The program further emphasized transversal creation, data management, automation, and rapid application development, while fostering advanced exploration of storytelling, narrative structures, and systems design.
Bridging these interdisciplinary domains, the initiative equipped participants with the technical fluency, creative agility, and AI literacy needed to navigate emerging AI-driven workflows and co-create innovative, human-centred solutions across media, research, and cultural production.
Through this work, we discovered that transformative progress is driven not by technology alone, but by how people collaborate, communicate, and create together around it. The effective integration of AI and immersive technologies relies on shared understanding, cross-disciplinary trust, and deliberate skill-building that amplifies creative agency rather than replacing it. These insights underscore the vital importance of centring human values, ethical responsibility, and collaborative practices as AI-driven creative and research ecosystems continue to evolve.
Thank you
Special thanks to Tony Eetak, Krish Agrawal, Dr. Olaf Kuhlke, Jamie Bell, Maurice Betournay, Terri Bell, Eva Suluk, Art Borups Corners, the Local Services Board of Melgund and The Arts Incubator Winnipeg. The project was seeded in 2024-25 with support from the OpenAI Researcher Access Program and the Manitoba Arts Council Indigenous 360 Program. We are especially grateful for continued funding from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design Creative Entrepreneurship program, Ontario Arts Council Multi and Inter-Arts Projects program, and the Government of Ontario for making this program a reality.
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