Memory Warriors or Memory Peacemakers? How Generative AIs Deal with Memories about the Holocaust in Ukraine

Makhortykh, Mykola; Vziatysheva, Victoria; Sydorova, Maryna (23 September 2023). Memory Warriors or Memory Peacemakers? How Generative AIs Deal with Memories about the Holocaust in Ukraine (Unpublished). In: Post-Socialist Memory Cultures in Transition. 20-23 September 2023.

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he rise of generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools, such as ChatGPT, signifies a fundamental shift in the field of historical remembrance. In contrast to other constituents of the algorithm-driven memory ecosystem, such as search engines, generative AI does not only curate human-generated content, but also generates its own historical narratives. Under these circumstances, it goes beyond the memory gatekeeping functions of earlier algorithmic systems, and becomes a memory producer itself.

The effects of such a fundamental shift, however, currently remain unclear, in particular in the context of memory contestation and instrumentalisation common for post-socialist memory regimes. Considering the tendency of less advanced algorithmic systems to reiterate human bias, it is likely that generative AIs will turn into memory warriors facilitating appropriation of the past. Simultaneously, complexity of these systems might allow them to facilitate production of more nuanced narratives and to go beyond a single memory discourse.

To understand how generative AI deals with the contested past, we look at how two generative AIs - ChatGPT and Chatsonic - produce narratives about the key episodes of the Holocaust (e.g., Lviv pogrom) in Ukraine in Russian, Ukrainian and English languages. Using historical and discourse analysis, we examine how AIs interpret these events, which has been long debated in Ukraine and instrumentalized by Russia in the wake of the 2022 invasion. We aim to understand to what degree AIs are capable of dealing with historical nuances, how their performance varies depending on the language, and whether it is affected by memory instrumentalization.

Item Type:	Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)
Division/Institute:	03 Faculty of Business, Economics and Social Sciences > Social Sciences > Institute of Communication and Media Studies (ICMB)
UniBE Contributor:	Makhortykh, Mykola, Vziatysheva, Victoria, Sydorova, Maryna
Subjects:	000 Computer science, knowledge & systems 300 Social sciences, sociology & anthropology 900 History 900 History > 940 History of Europe
Language:	English
Submitter:	Mykola Makhortykh
Date Deposited:	02 Oct 2023 09:39
Last Modified:	02 Oct 2023 09:39
Uncontrolled Keywords:	digital memory, chatGPT, Bing AI, Bard, generative AI, conversational agent, Holocaust, Ukraine, history
URI:	https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/186812