BioShock, made by 2K Games and released in 2007, follows a complex storyline and introduces the idea of individual choices in gameplay involving both the influences the player, supposedly, has in the story and the game mechanics itself. The original game is the best, in my opinion, and discusses various philosophical and moral questions regarding the ethics of genetic engineering, autonomy, and the idea of power and who holds it within society among other topics. As influential as it is, I asked ChatGPT to analyze the philosophy of BioShock and it predictably did as I asked but I found a lot of what it discussed to be fairly recycled. Nothing special. I’ve heard it before in the various creators I watched or read who took apart the series piece by piece and analyzed the lore, dove into the history and inspirations for the series, and connected the dots among them.
As an avid fan of this series, I was still thrilled to read a summed-up analysis of the series and the thought-provoking theories it hides under finely-aged graphics, it was truly a game ahead of its time. However, after asking ChatGPT about the philosophy of the game I noticed that it never went in-depth with the analysis, only stating what the game critiqued, where certain ideas such as objectivism came from, and characters that were relevant to a certain idea. I believe this is largely due to AI’s inability to intelligently analyze for itself and it’s taking various points of view and critiques from online resources and combining them to make sense as discussed in Bhatia’s Watch an AI Learn to Write. Seeing as ChatGPT’s AI has access to the entire internet this is a reasonable assumption as, “Language models are a kind of universal mimic: They imitate whatever they’ve been trained on. With enough data and rounds of training, this imitation can become fairly uncanny, as ChatGPT and its peers have shown us.” (Bhatia) Reduce, reuse, and recycle they say, and it’s safe to say that’s exactly what AI does. Though I wouldn’t describe my experience with the AI as uncanny in this circumstance, I also never necessarily pushed it further than asking about its thoughts to which it replied with some variation of “I am a computer and I don’t have thoughts but here’s an analysis…” and then a basic recollection and reasoning in its points.
Ayn Rand, a Russian-American philosopher, played a large influence in the central plot of Bioshock and it’s her ideas of objectivism and individualism that partly led to the downfall of the underwater water city of Rapture. When I asked the AI to elaborate on her ideas and how they were in the story it honestly did a good job at pointing out little details as in, “His [Andrew Ryan] name even resembles Ayn Rand’s, and his ideology mirrors many Objectivist principles.” This wasn’t something I expected the AI to catch onto or mention but I’m pleasantly surprised that it did. As much critique as I’ve given the AI for its surface-level analyses and less-than-personable formatting, I do think that it was a great tool for getting a general idea of what the game discusses and opens a gate for an individual to do their own research on points they may find interesting. Getting into all of that yourself can be kind of daunting, especially if you are new to the ideas as a whole so I understand and see no problem in AI’s use regarding personal curiosities in a non-harmful way.
Cited Works:
Bhatia, Aatish. “Watch an AI Learn to Write Using Nothing but Jane Austen.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 27 Apr. 2023, www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/04/26/upshot/gpt-from-scratch.html?unlocked_article_code=HiWNX_xHJch0lm7lrjpE7B_4uvDFrmT19lrxy6I9WZ77mUfsh2recNtlTlylbktaK-P7BcSPDHXmNuvk90i5PG-90v0x2htoEMErvTqscz-uicIor7SQaaGfCFOxF3hStudh70l7kYdjCYgTiPyq_jtHrxONe7ILtz_E2CgK2GmqfUV2Z1FeWoIhHYcJi4QrPoAAVwc0R9MBzB48LJlbyJKCyjH2ehiOofKuL9WsrALTwNzUw4mka98apHBhxV7SKObGpYAoMhYfXxnTStUvUnKMrypURh9qEQss4Z8WjQ8YQ9EKXaHMVGXDjR4NVoGHeOOR4J_Rl_wST9J1HlR_okZVCQBQgXKK_A&smid=url-share.