PrideNZ.com, a renowned website dedicated to preserving and providing accessibility to Aotearoa New Zealand’s Rainbow heritage, has embarked on a groundbreaking project to enhance the accessibility of its vast collection of audio recordings using artificial intelligence (AI).
Gareth Watkins, the founder of Pride NZ, highlights the growing accessibility of Generative Artificial Intelligence (Gen AI), particularly through platforms like ChatGPT. This technological advancement enables web users to interact with AI systems in real-time, analyze specific knowledge sources such as Wikipedia, and even generate new content with a simple prompt.
For marginalized groups, including Takatāpui LGBTI+ Rainbow communities, Gen AI has the potential to be transformative. Watkins explains that these communities often face resource constraints and rely on volunteer efforts. However, with the automation capabilities of Gen AI, time-consuming tasks can be streamlined. It allows for the creation of content for community websites, student projects, and other non-profit resources.
Watkins offers an example of how Gen AI has already made a significant impact on PrideNZ.com. Previously, a 3-hour long audio interview would take hours to summarize and transcribe into a written article. However, with Gen AI, the same process can be completed in less than a minute, resulting in a 600-word article. This breakthrough presents an opportunity for community members to actively contribute to rainbow representation on platforms like Wikipedia.
Throughout the past year, Pride NZ has diligently compiled and released datasets related to rainbow communities under a Creative Commons non-commercial license. These datasets encompass various aspects, including geographical coordinates, titles, descriptions, audio recordings, voices, tags, and more. One dataset, in particular, holds the key to unlocking the vast richness of the Pride NZ collection. By utilizing AI-generated transcriptions and plain text versions of the content, users can easily identify topics of interest and explore the website’s extensive resources.
Although the transcriptions may not be flawless, they provide enough material for Gen AI models to accurately summarize and create articles based on the content. Pride NZ has already experimented with Gen AI models like ChatGPT 4, instructing them to generate articles with a similar style to Wikipedia. The results have been highly promising, showcasing the potential of AI to enhance the comprehensiveness and accessibility of Rainbow histories in Aotearoa, particularly during significant moments such as Transgender Day of Remembrance on November 20th.
In conclusion, PrideNZ.com’s partnership with AI technology marks a significant step towards revolutionizing the accessibility and representation of Aotearoa New Zealand’s Rainbow heritage. By leveraging the power of Gen AI, Pride NZ aims to ensure that Rainbow histories, including the rich Transgender history, are comprehensively reflected online.
