Advancing Generative AI in Worldbuilding

Worldbuilding is a general perspective on constructing an imaginary world in fictional narratives. Consider narrative literature as an advancing edge of human civilization. Worldbuilding is a dynamic force at the confluence of fictional narratives and storytelling. This emphasis on creative fictional writing began appearing in Western literature in the 14th century with Dante's Divine Comedy. In contemporary literature, worldbuilding embodies ideas, fantasies, as well as fears and horrors of postmodern existence, which now occur widely in popular literature, novels, movies, plays, television, and video gaming.

Although philosophies and methodologies for creating imaginary narratives now surround worldbuilding, they generally require a traditional "pen and pencil" writer. Even when worldbuilding software is implemented, the generative aspects remain largely traditional narration. In this announcement, contemporary worldbuilding aims to systematize and embellish traditional fictional narrative writing by incorporating generative AI components, creating universes with their own rules and then developing storylines within those universes.

How can generative AI be integrated into worldbuilding? The goal here is to solicit perspectives on integrating generative AI with autonomous entities into worldbuilding. Specifically, how could generative algorithms be integrated not only into settings like the generation of physical attributes and costumes but also into the dynamic aspects of the plot and narrative? For example, a lightning strike could be a planned event in a story, or it could be generated by a probabilistic algorithm.

Introducing autonomous entities into the narrative would create an underlying, yet unpredictable driving force within the narrative. Addressing this challenge would not only change storytelling but also create an entirely new genre that embraces simulation and probability in the conception of narratives. Doing so could transform worldbuilding into a model for scientific hypothesis and theory testing. Eddington is widely recognized for using the term 'worldbuilding' to describe the conception of hypothetical worlds with different physical laws. In other words, worldbuilding models could be conducted with AI generators that are based on different ideas concerning underlying laws. Separate models could conduct simulations to test empirical viability and significance. The advance would be simulations that manifest effects and interactions in presently unimaginable detail.

The scope is narrowly limited to submissions that emphasize generative AI applications in worldbuilding. Specific areas of interest include writing, video games, cinema, and transmedia work in general. Priority among submissions will be given to conceptualization and implementation related to advancing dynamic AI-generated worldbuilding. The dynamic coordination problem associated with multiple worldbuilding dimensions could also be addressed.

In other words, conventional AI generativity already addresses isolated, independent attributes and themes such as building design, weather conditions, and a vast array of visual and language themes. However, the simultaneous determination of several attributes by autonomous components has never been demonstrated, and their coordination presents an especially difficult AI challenge. Therefore, submissions that present ideas and concepts about how to do so would be welcome. A successful submission will likely include the following characteristics:

• Ideas about introducing generative AI to worldbuilding with special attention to autonomous components.
• Consideration of methodology needed to accommodate the complexity of generative worldbuilding.
• Perspectives and methods on coordinating several AI components within a narrative.

Any submission with a perspective on the probabilistic aspects of having multiple generative components interacting within the worldbuilding narrative and ideas about how AI could adapt to them will be welcomed. Ultimately, submissions should not rely on published software to address these concerns.

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Case Report
• Clinical Trial
• Conceptual Analysis
• Curriculum, Instruction, and Pedagogy
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• General Commentary
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Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Case Report
• Clinical Trial
• Conceptual Analysis
• Curriculum, Instruction, and Pedagogy
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Registered Report
• Review
• Study Protocol
• Systematic Review
• Technology and Code

Keywords: Worldbuilding, generative AI, autonomous components, simulations, synthetic reality, metaverse

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.