Storying the Good Life - Ghost Stories As Moral Medium

Theravad Buddhist tales remain one of the main media to navigate a good life in Thailand. Traditional stories are being re-imagined and retold, to a certain extent translated to different audiences. Ghost stories, in particular the tale of Mae Nak, has served as explaining matters of a balance of devotion and letting go over generations and despite technological turns. The story has been shared and retold in many variations, spaces of worship remain spaces of actual scenery and inspiration. Only recently has the importance of collaborative practices of storysharing been uncovered as counter- or detoxed narrative to colonial mainstreamed forms of storytelling/genre. Recent trends in technological shifts have enabled new forms of sharing stories beyond restricted communal spaces.

This contribution questions what happens to storylines in case a supposedly ‘neutral’ AI re-creates stories? So, what happens when AI is being prompted to recount (cultural) narrative that is aimed to convey guidance to a moral sound life? Which storylines aer being invented, which emphasized or omitted and why?

We combine research on (participatory) storytelling and narratives (Krause et al. 2019) with explorative research on the use of AI across (cultural and geographical) borders to scrutinize how ghostly narratives and reality become entangled (Chubb et al. 2024). By comparing digitized and ‘traditional’ modes, the transnational research team questions how automated “storytellers” provide access to different stories and how tales are being reshaped in order to cater to a global (aka Northern) audience?

We will explore whether it is possible to detect biased narrations as little has been reported about “missing” story-sharers’ re-producing stories (Chubb et al. 2024), specifically outside dominating Northern discourses.

By discussing the importance of authentic voices and perspectives, this contribution aims to amplify so far ignored, underestimated or unheard stories and their bearers (Krause et al. 2019, Shell-Weiss 2019).