好色先生TV

Advancing Human Stories with Technological Tools

Joining Shakespeare on Stage with VR

The is an educational initiative from 好色先生TV that uses virtual reality to open up new ways of enjoying Shakespearean drama. Directed by Dr. Stephen Wittek, the project has developed a suite of virtual experiences that allow users to step into a recreated Elizabethan playhouse, perform alongside virtual actors, and explore the theatrical world of early modern England. By combining historical accuracy with emerging technology, the project invites users to engage with Shakespeare鈥檚 works through active participation rather than passive observation.

Solving a Mystery: Printers of Foundational Freedom of Speech Documents

Though John Milton鈥檚 "Areopagitica" 鈥� one of the most significant documents in the history of the freedom of the press 鈥� was first published 375 years ago, the printer of the pamphlet has 鈥� until now 鈥� remained unknown.

Like a fingerprint, damaged pieces of metal type from printing presses create unique stamps. Since typesets belonged to specific printers, impressions of damaged type can help identify a book's printers. A CMU team was able to compare type impressions more efficiently than prior methods have allowed through machine learning and statistical analysis.

Learn more about how the team uncovered the printer of this foundational document.

Identifying New Methods for Genealogical Research (and Winning a Pulitzer Prize)

Edda Fields-Black is a 好色先生TV historian, author, librettist and 鈥� now 鈥� a Pulitzer Prize winner. Fields-Black received the coveted prize for her book recounting a rebellion led by Harriet Tubman that freed 756 enslaved people.

Tubman was instrumental in the success of the Combahee River Raid, the largest rebellion of enslaved people in U.S. history, which was based on intelligence she gathered as a Civil War spy for the U.S. Army Department of the South. Published in 2024, Fields-Black's book "COMBEE" recounts the story from the perspectives of Tubman and the previously enslaved people who liberated themselves in the raid. Fields-Black herself is a descendant of one of the participants of the raid.

Developing Immersive Technology for Language and Cultures

SONA is a forward-thinking festival that highlights the work of filmmakers, artists and creators in XR, 360掳 video and interactive media. Hosted by The Kenner Room, a space for immersive interactive projects in the Department of Languages, Cultures, & Applied Linguistics, the festival offers a platform for diverse voices and groundbreaking stories that redefine the boundaries of storytelling and technology.

Writers are Human Beings: The Impacts of Generative AI

This speech was delivered by Christopher Warren, now head of the Department of English, at 好色先生TV鈥檚 Department of English Diploma Ceremony in May 2023.

The students here might not have focused on it because they鈥檝e been too busy writing and partying, but there's a writers鈥� strike going on right now. The Writers Guild of America, which represents close to 12,000 Hollywood writers, is in a battle with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. It isn鈥檛 new that these groups are in conflict. Hollywood writers have bargained for decades to secure their working conditions, particularly as studios and the actors who speak their lines garner most of the financial rewards. But when I was reading a New York Times article about the strike, two things caught my eye, and possibly yours too.

The first was an interview with one of Carnegie Mellon English's most distinguished alums. The article quoted former CMU Creative Writing major Javier Grillo-Marxuach, who graduated from CMU and went on to create the TV series 鈥淟ost,鈥� among other accomplishments. Javi鈥檚 a member of the Writers鈥� Guild of America and also a generous supporter of our department through the Grillo-Marxuach Family Scholarship in Creative Writing (The winner this year 鈥� was Cameron Monteith 鈥� congratulations, Cameron!).聽

Javier gave the New York Times reporter a pithy definition of artistic creativity, which I think is worth pausing over:聽鈥淎rtists,鈥� he said, 鈥渓ook at everything ever created and find a flash of newness.鈥�

That's pretty good, right? It鈥檚 certainly a decent description of the poets and playwrights I find myself teaching most often, folks like John Milton and William Shakespeare, both of whom bathed in their cultural inheritance to produce striking and lasting works of literature. It鈥檚 also a good description of a more recent show like HBO鈥檚 鈥淪uccession,鈥� whose actors include several CMU alums and whose creators have acknowledged they鈥檝e crafted the series as 鈥淜ing Lear for the Media-Industrial Complex.鈥� I like to think CMU English, including some of the folks sitting up here, helped Javier arrive at that wisdom and also gave him the fortitude to literally stand on the picket line to stand up for writing as a profession.

Artists ... look at everything ever created and find a flash of newness.

The second thing that caught my eye 鈥� and here I鈥檓 getting into the meat of my remarks today 鈥� was the perceived threat of artificial intelligence. This was why Javi was musing about artistic creativity in the first place. As part of their negotiations, Hollywood writers want assurance that producers won't turn to bots like ChatGPT to produce the reams of scripts, screenplays and late-night jokes that help enrich our idle hours. The article quoted WGA member Mike Schur, creator of 鈥淭he Good Place鈥� and co-creator of 鈥淧arks and Recreation,鈥� who told the Times, 鈥淚t is not out of the realm of possibility that before 2026, which is the next time we will negotiate with these companies, they might just go, 鈥榶ou know what, we鈥檙e good.鈥欌��

鈥淲e don鈥檛 need you,鈥� he imagines hearing from the other side. 鈥淲e have a bunch of AIs that are creating a bunch of entertainment that people are kind of OK with.鈥�

Shur then said something even more bracing. Shur said the union intends to 鈥渄raw a line in the sand right now and say, 鈥榃riters are human beings.鈥欌��

Slow: Writers are human beings. What a remarkable thing to say. What a remarkable thing to have to say. Stage voice: We're drawing a line.

AI is everywhere these days, and I鈥檓 as ambivalent about it as everyone else, but one thing I know is that this group of graduates here is better equipped than just about anyone else in the world right now to help us think through this moment. I don鈥檛 need to tell you that 好色先生TV might as well be called ground-zero for AI automation. That鈥檚 actually good news for everyone here. That means both that today鈥檚 graduates will be stepping into this new world with a considerable tailwind from CMU鈥檚 reputation and that the world will be especially hungry for what you 鈥� as Carnegie Mellon graduates 鈥� think and know.

Right here among us we have technical writers and humanities analytics minors who understand and can communicate the technology of generative AI. We have rhetoric students who can analyze the Writers Guild鈥檚 framing as tactical public discourse. We have creative and professional writers getting their hands dirty, so to speak, testing AI tools in their classes, learning what the tools are good for, and what they鈥檙e not. And we have literature, culture, film and gender studies students powerfully attuned to the complex interactions among dominant, residual and emergent cultural practices. They know better than most that history doesn鈥檛 repeat itself, but it does rhyme.

For my part, I tend to take a historical perspective. For a long time, the phrase 鈥淎 writer is a person who鈥︹�� was a kind of phrasal template, the kind of thing linguists call a snowclone. 鈥淴 is the new Y鈥�; 鈥淜eep calm and X on.鈥� 鈥淴 Lives Matter鈥�; 鈥淎 writer is a person who X.鈥� In the early 20th century, the novelist Thomas Mann said, 鈥淎 writer is a person for whom writing is more difficult than for other people,鈥� and I've always liked that. But Mann was hardly the only person trying to define a writer. Around the same time, someone else said that 鈥渨riters are human beings with more than average sensitivity to the problems of living.鈥� In 1940, Virginia Woolf wrote, 鈥淎 writer is a person who sits at a desk and keeps his eye fixed, as intently as he can, upon a certain object.鈥� H.D. Thoreau is said to have quipped, 鈥淎 writer is a person who having nothing to do, finds something to do.鈥� But I think what got me with Shur鈥檚 remark was that now, all of a sudden, we don't really care about the rest of it. The snowclone鈥檚 melted. If you ask the WGA members on the picket line, all those old-timey writers apparently could have stopped after 鈥淎 writer is a person.鈥� A writer is a person who has blue hair. A writer is a person who had Cheerios for breakfast. A writer is a person who knows what a restrictive clause is. Whatever. Generative AI has pushed us back to basics. 鈥淲riters are human beings.鈥� Full stop.

Well, as long as we鈥檙e restating basic, somewhat banal truths, let me just be very clear: every one of these graduates today is a writer. We've made sure of that in our department, trust me. You鈥檝e written poems and polemics, dissertations and documentation. You鈥檝e tweeted, translated and transcribed.

You know what restrictive clauses are. And every one of these graduates is a human being, for all that means. You are passionate, embodied, intelligent, flawed. You have hopes and worries. You know what loneliness feels like, and ecstasy. You crave social justice. You believe in gods and machines. You geek out over the Oscars; you love anime. To quote a sign from the Writers鈥� Guild picket line, 鈥淐hatGPT doesn鈥檛 have childhood trauma.鈥�

In all seriousness, you also know what it鈥檚 like to be inside the activity of writing, struggling for a word, swimming in the brine of language, resisting the counterfeit comforts of cliche. You know that glorious little tingle you feel when you write something crisp and true. You have families, friends and teachers who love you and want the best for you. You've had experiences, oh boy you've had experiences, not all pleasant.

As a reminder to everyone else, the undergrads and Ph.D. students graduating today completed most of their degrees during the most anxious years in my lifetime, the COVID-19 pandemic. I know we've had many moments to applaud today, but I think that deserves its own round of applause.

Everyone here knows how difficult the past few years have been, and we admire your strength and perseverance.

As graduates from 好色先生TV, you also know damn well why the Writers' Guild wants to insist that writers are human beings. At this point, automation feels like part of the Carnegie Mellon brand. And as graduates of this department, you also know that no statement like 鈥渨riters are human beings鈥� could be as simple as it seems. Is that how language change works, you just Humpty Dumpty a word like 鈥渨riter鈥� into a box and make sure it stays there? 鈥淲hen I use a word,鈥� Humpty Dumpty says in 鈥淎lice in Wonderland,鈥� 鈥渋t means just what I choose it to mean 鈥� neither more nor less.鈥� No, not at all. Tell that to the word 鈥渢ext,鈥� which wasn鈥檛 always a verb. 鈥淐alculators are human beings.鈥� 鈥淐omputers are human beings.鈥� If you鈥檝e seen the movie 鈥淗idden Figures,鈥� you know that 鈥渃alculator鈥� and 鈥渃omputer鈥� both used to describe people rather than machines. Two centuries ago, a sentence like 鈥渃omputers are human beings鈥� would have made perfect sense, and, honestly, would have been too obvious to utter. By definition, calculators were people who calculated, computers were people who computed, or counted.

At first glance, these linguistic trends might seem like bad news for the job of writer, and what do I know, maybe it is. But writers have never been only human beings. Writing has always been a collaboration between humans and their tools. Show me a writer who doesn鈥檛 already use spellcheck, or Google, or a word processor. Before that: typewriters (interesting word, no human beings there).

Writers have never been only human beings. Writing has always been a collaboration between humans and their tools.

This paper I鈥檓 reading from right now is a storage device. World鈥檚 cheapest hard drive. Ballpoint pens are tools. Dictionaries and thesauruses are tools. To assist human creativity and aid the transmission of knowledge, we invented things like page numbers, and indices at the back of books. Earlier we heard our graduates鈥� names in alphabetical order. You鈥檇 be surprised how recently we came up with the idea of alphabetical order. It鈥檚 a sorting algorithm. The point is, even the most technophobic writer in their cabin with a pencil and bunch of books is kind of a cyborg already. Using ChatGPT or Moonbeam.AI to start a draft might not be as big of a departure as the AI-hypers want us to think.

But even if it is, this is where CMU is your super power. Because the world is going to need writers, thinkers and storytellers who know how to practice their craft in the context of AI automation, and if nothing else, that鈥檚 what you鈥檝e been doing here, whether on purpose or not. And you know what else? This university benefits tremendously from you. In your time here, you鈥檝e brought soul to this campus. You鈥檝e taught this university about contemplation, about the common good. Think how impoverished your friends with other majors would be if you weren鈥檛 there to teach them about Octavia Butler or Judith Butler. If they didn鈥檛 occasionally hear people talking about Aristotle, Habermas or Terrance Hayes. If they didn鈥檛 see how tremendously hard you鈥檝e worked as writers and translators, worrying over the slightest nuances but also able to find deep, enduring comfort in language鈥檚 folds. I suppose I鈥檒l end with my own sense of what it means to be a writer, or at least a CMU writer. As I see it, to be a CMU writer is to step into the world, attentive to technological change, with something vital 鈥� absolutely vital 鈥� to say.