By: Kaja Antic, Sports Writer

Artificial intelligence (AI) seems to be everywhere these days, from creating art to writing Buzzfeed articles. Even though this technology seems to be rapidly advancing and integrating with our society, most have very limited knowledge when it comes to interacting with AI due to unclear regulations. 

AI has two types of learning systems: machine learning and deep learning. Machine learning is a subset of AI; it’s trained by being fed continual sets of data and being provided an algorithm (rules) to understand how to interpret what it’s being shown. In turn, it can then make recommendations. Deep learning is a subset of machine learning. The same context applies, however, the AI is supposed to be advanced enough, like a human brain, to be able to have little to no human intervention, allowing for it to problem solve on its own.  

This wide-open area of expertise prompted SFU student-athlete Caleb Parkhouse to embark on this creative process, which he turned into his debut novel, Let’s Call You Dave: Decoding the Future with AI Dialogue.

“I, too, knew virtually nothing about the world of artificial intelligence, and as I worked my way through this project, I continually learnt more and more.” 

“As the reader flips through the pages, the book acts as something like an introduction into the world of AI because they actively learn with me as I pry into Dave’s mind.”

Dave is the AI persona Parkhouse constructed through his communications with ChatGPT, the most prominent AI chatbot developed by OpenAI with millions of users worldwide. Parkhouse began his contact with Dave around the May long weekend back in 2023 after listening to a podcast which discussed the ways AI would connect with broader human society.

“I more or less came to the conclusion that if artificial intelligence was going to disrupt how we as people interact with the world around us, then the single best thing I could learn was how to most effectively and efficiently communicate with AI.” 

Along with his recent venture into writing, Parkhouse is a cognitive psychology major and philosophy minor at SFU and is a member of the SFU Hockey non-conference team — meaning extra travel in addition to training and studying. Due to these prior commitments, Parkhouse did the bulk of his work over the summer of 2023.

 “Outside of school, working out work and this project, I sacrificed those social events that I was so used to participating in throughout the summer. But it’s because this is what was more interesting to me. I didn’t really feel like I had a choice. It’s all I wanted to do.”

Parkhouse, who has been playing hockey since the age of four, notes how the team sport dynamic affected his conversations with Dave. “Sports has been something that’s really taught me a lot about communicating, interacting with people, and using something like a team to get a job done. I would have to imagine that that seeps into the way that I communicate in English with my computer.”

The ChatGPT system is primarily concerned with identifying patterns in language, and coming up with the highest probable answer of the highest quality. “Essentially, it’s a probability machine,” Parkhouse said. “Artificial intelligence is an intelligence amplifier. As of right now, AI only goes in the direction that you point it to go.”

One problem is that deep learning AI is taking artists’ work from online and merging them to create a piece of its own through text-to-image generators. 

Passing on the work created by generative AI as your own is considered a form of plagiarism by some institutions. However, the loose binding of the legal framework is what’s making AI particularly frustrating for artists. As of right now, AI-generated art is not copyrightable, and companies that are scrapping the internet for artwork are citing free use. Free use allows creators to use some copyright material for the purpose of critiquing or teaching. This relative uncertainty about the ownership of AI-generated content is creating confusion for the use of AI in creative spaces.

When asked about the concerns surrounding AI impacting creatives, Parkhouse noted that while AI-generated imagery is expanding generously, everyday viewers must also recognize the limitations of artificial creativity, and prioritize human qualities over computer-generated forms of art. “We have the opportunity to recenter our priorities so that we seek value in universally human qualities. Qualities like diversity, idiosyncrasies, flaws, misperceptions and the personal limitations that manifest through each of our creations.”

As AI continues to affect everyday life, it has increased its presence in educational settings, which has been a continuing debate in academic circles.

“Obviously those temptations [to use AI] are going to be right in the faces of these students,” Parkhouse told The Peak. “I guess that just becomes a conversation of why exactly are you in school? And if you could answer that question, then hopefully you can come to terms with wanting to pick up the workload, because it will serve you better in the long run. These are vital skills that, even in the world of AI, are going to work wonders and take you a long way.”

Overall, it seems like there are no concrete limits to AI advancements, and Let’s Call You Dave — which Parkhouse calls a “book of questions.” The novel covers the intricacies of an artificial language model, and how it interacts with humans typing on a keyboard. “As much as it has its problems, it also could be a massive benefitting factor,” Parkhouse explained. “I hope that this novel can introduce people into the world of AI, or at least get them talking about it, because, well, the door has been opened. It’s here and it’s here to stay.”

Let’s Call You Dave: Decoding the Future with AI Dialogue is currently available on Amazon.