AI-generated activity book for NWT Mining Week draws concerns

An activity book for NWT Mining Week shows a caribou, teepee, northern lights and heavy machinery. Look a little closer and you’ll also see some people who have more or fewer than five fingers on each hand.

That’s because the images in the booklet were generated by artificial intelligence, or AI, which has some northerners raising their eyebrows.

That includes Yellowknife artist and high school teacher Robyn Scott.

“The fact that this project, this mining days celebration, is recognizing some aspect of northern culture but not using original content from northern artists is, quite frankly, offensive and a little horrifying,” she said.

While she uses AI as a tool for her business for things like organization, drafting emails or cleaning up her sketches, Scott said she believes you should always start with original content.

She said hiring artists for a project like a colouring book does not have to be expensive, and giving artists publishing credit can help them apply for grants and other funding.

“I’m very disappointed in the organization that put this together,” she said. “I think there’s better ways and if they could have just asked any artist in our community, they would have been happy to talk to them.”

When she told her students at Sir John Franklin High School about the AI-generated activity book, Scott said she witnessed a “visible flinch” go across the classroom. She said she has seen a “strong resistance” from youth to AI.

“A lot of adults and a lot of working professionals seem to think this is revolutionary to our daily lives,” she said.

“Students today have a strong opinion about what is diminishing our creativity and taking away from the work that they’re doing and want to do in the future and I think that they’re very wise and we should be listening to them more about those opinions.”

The NWT government said the Mining Week activity booklet was developed by a contractor as part of Mining North Works and it was aware AI was used to generate art for the booklet. It said the decision was partly due to time and budget constraints.

According to the territory, approximately 22,000 copies of the booklet were printed, a significant amount of which were mailed to NWT residents.

The GNWT said it plays a role in funding and developing materials and it is “currently evaluating its relationship with Mining North Works and how the decision to use AI-generated art occurred.”

Mining North Works did not respond to Cabin Radio’s request for comment.

This is not the first time questions about the ethics of AI use when creating art have been raised in Yellowknife. Earlier this year, influencers visiting the city came under fire for using a generative AI chatbot and virtual assistant to bring snow sculptures to life without crediting the artists.

Alice Twa contributed reporting.