The Past Goes Viral: HistoryTok Writes New Old Stories With AI

If you’ve been spent time lately on HistoryTok, the corner of TikTok where creators post short-form snappy history content, or any other historical-leaning form of social media lately, you might well have come across a new channel, perkily entitled “Chloe VS History.” The series takes the form of a young, personable American woman, Chloe, who finds herself everywhere from Tudor England to Ancient Egypt. While she has the forthright aspect and can-do attitude of a successful contemporary influencer, Chloe finds herself in a variety of bizarre, momentous situations, whether it’s meeting Henry VIII, being on board the Titanic as it sinks, being awestruck at a group of woolly mammoths in the Ice Age, or heading to the pyramids of Ancient Egypt in 2400 BC.In every case, there is the juxtaposition between Chloe’s breezy, bright persona, a typical Los Angeles resident who is adept at inveigling herself into people’s good graces, and the well-depicted historical environments that she has been placed in. Over the course of five relatively short but detailed videos on YouTube — our heroine embarks on an even wider array of historical journeys on TikTok — there is an emphasis on realism that makes these various situations come alive. You can almost smell the dung and rotting fish in Tudor England, sense the scorching heat of Egypt, and feel the desolate emptiness of the arctic wilderness, even as Chloe’s Valley Girl commentary offers the quintessential HistoryTok mixture of opinion, mostly bad jokes, and occasionally surprising insight.Up until very recently, the Titanic, Tudor England and Ancient Rome would have been depicted with low-budget sets and costumes, and Chloe herself would either have been an enthusiastic young historian straight out of grad school or, quite possibly, an actress reading a script written by a rather less fresh-faced historical consultant. Yet what is so interesting about “Chloe VS History” that have so far been released is that they are entirely AI generated, something that would have been unthinkable even a couple of years ago.‘Chloe VS History.’ InstagramThe advantage that this much-discussed format has is that it can offer a visceral sense of immersion in the past that conventional recreations simply cannot, even if the Titanic video seems to owe as much to the aesthetic of the James Cameron film as it does to any documented photographs of the doomed ocean liner. As Chloe wanders around these far-flung parts of the world, offering a mixture of awe, wonder and concern, there will be everyone from history professors to documentarians watching these clips and asking whether these, rather than any number of worthy, sprawling Ken Burns-esque films, are the future of historical engagement with mass audiences. In recent times, history has reinvented itself via the podcast format, both wide-ranging—“The Rest Is History,” “Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History” — and more specialized — “Empire,” “The Political History of the United States.” Yet judging by the wildly enthusiastic responses to the channel on TikTok, YouTube and Instagram, recreating the past through artificial intelligence the way “Chloe VS. History” is taking us into uncharted territory.Several of Chloe’s clips have gone viral — the Titanic one, which was only released two months ago, has racked up 2.4 million views, and the Tudor London episode, which came a month later, has an impressive 2 million hits — although it is interesting to see that some of the other videos, of Ancient Egypt and the Ice Age, have not quite had the same impact, although that might be down to their more recent release. Nonetheless, it indicates that Chloe is breaking through in specific areas, and that lovers of the 1997 film “Titanic” and the medieval grit popularized by “Game of Thrones” are more likely to connect with “her” videos than the more abstract depictions of less familiar worlds. (A thought: where is the big HBO/Apple series about Ancient Egypt? It would make “Succession” look tame.)‘Chloe VS History.’ TikTokChloe is, of course, a carefully put together construct, but nonetheless there is a real person behind her creation, in the form of Jonathan Laramy, who suggested that his intention between the clips was to draw younger people into understanding wider periods of history. As he told The Guardian, “History is a very visual experience, but it’s just not taught that way. It’s taught via a textbook. And that is not compatible with lots of students. So why not use the technology we have to bring that to life in a really visceral way?” He has been using the Seedance 2.0 programme to produce these videos, drawing on as many historical documents and images as he can, and was especially keen to take the idea of a central figure — Chloe — as a relatable and understandable guide to these areas of history, thereby bringing in an audience who would otherwise avoid these things like the (Athenian) plague.Obviously, AI remains a controversial means of delivering content, and Mr. Laramy is aware that there will be many — both those who are ignorant of the videos, but even some who have bothered to spend the hour or so that it takes to watch them — who will decry them as nothing more than cynical AI slop. His response is to suggest that, “I’m trying to use it for purely positive reasons, and say: ‘This is what you can do with it now, and isn’t this great? We can actually stitch together our past and bring it to life so vividly.’” ‘Chloe VS History.’ TikTokWhat I was reminded of most strongly while watching Laramy’s clips was the kind of CGI-assisted simulation that you can find in theme parks, using virtual reality glasses to immerse you in another world for a few moments. Used correctly, it can be an awesome, even inspirational experience; used poorly, it can seem cheap, tacky and opportunistic. Just like AI, in fact.“Chloe VS History” is certainly attracting a great deal of attention and interest, and Mr. Laramy should be welcomed for making history accessible. Yet I suspect that there are limits to this style of perky, upbeat content. I cannot imagine, for instance, that Chloe will be sitting down with Thomas Jefferson to discuss the finer points of the Declaration of Independence, any more than I can see her in a video wandering around the wreckage of Hiroshima and Nagasaki or the concentration camps of Auschwitz and Dachau. Perhaps some other, bolder creator will find another AI character for history’s bleaker or more intellectual episodes, or maybe there are simply limits to how immersive audiences want their clicks into the past to be. It is one thing to be horrified by the sinking of the Titanic — spoiler alert, Chloe does not drown – but quite another to be caught up in genocide. Perhaps there is a wider underlying flaw with the entire, good-natured idea, too. If it is indeed a case of “Chloe VS History,” then history — with the inevitability of fate — is always going to win.

The Past Goes Viral: HistoryTok Writes New Old Stories With AI

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