The Hero with a Thousand Cases
Stories have brought humans together (and sometimes divided us) for thousands of years. They can help us understand our world in a deeper way, providing insight on experiences of others, teach us morals or give warnings, and remember our history. Shared myths have been a major part of every human culture and can strengthen community ties. Even in present day, how much of our lives are spent either hearing or telling a story?
Myths
The epic of Gilgamesh, the oldest written story we have found, was recorded about 4000 years ago, although we know that storytelling has a long oral tradition that more than likely predated this text. What is the biological reason we’re all so good at telling stories and why we love to hear them?
Even though humans have a special knack for remembering through stories, artificial intelligence fails to share this capability. Why does AI struggle so much with comprehension and how can they become better at telling stories humans like to hear?
Gossip
But stories that humans tell are not all in the form of grand myths - we also love to tell stories about each other. Most of the stories we hear are about people we know - our family, friends, acquaintances - and people outside our social circle like celebrities, athletes, and artists.
Many of us have heard the saying “Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people.” But is this really so? Gossiping about other members of your social circle has a surprising, positive effect on early human society, and by passing along second-hand information about other individuals, we are able live in far larger social groups. Even today, gossip still performs an important function in our society. Will the day come when our AI assistants gossip to each other about us?
Our Minds
Humans see stories everywhere. Why do our minds love a narrative? Scientists have shown that we create meaning and intention out of random events and inanimate objects. Since we are creating many prediction machines to try to understand the human world, should the AI we’re building have the same biases? In the machine learning world, our propensity for apophenia runs counter to most AI design. Yet, this is an important part of understanding human behavior and decision-making. How can this be resolved?