A DATA IDEA WHERE NO DATA EXISTS

There is no greater storyteller in 2023 than our unlimited wealth of data. But what does it mean when one of the most robust data sets in the world—ChatGPT’s near-infinite knowledge—has a blind spot? That’s the question we asked ourselves. We discovered we could have a conversation with someone who simultaneously knows everything about Ukraine, but nothing about the war. The resulting work leveraged data that doesn’t exist into a powerful reminder on the anniversary of the war in Ukraine.

A WORLD DESENSITIZED TO WAR

During times of ongoing crisis, disaster relief organizations such as the Humanitarian Coalition are often faced with a familiar hurdle: How can we drive donations when the story is no longer topical? Approaching the one-year anniversary of the war in Ukraine, our challenge was to reignite support and donations in a way that would break through in today’s ever-changing news cycle.

DATA BLIND SPOT

Instead of building a creative solution around data we had, we built our idea around data we didn’t have—and the observation that the world’s most popular AI chatbot has a knowledge cut-off date of September 2021.

HEY CHATGPT, TELL ME ABOUT THE WAR IN UKRAINE

ChatGPT knows nothing about the war in Ukraine, but everything about what was there before. Its conversational nature enabled us to leverage that data, and lack thereof, into a message that could never have existed before the advent of the paradigm-shifting technology.

PROMPT FOR UKRAINE

A dramatic and revealing verbatim conversation with ChatGPT leveraged into an emotional prompt for Ukraine relief donations on the anniversary of the war.

FINDING THE LIMITS OF AN EXISTING DATA SET

This idea relied on one of the most robust data sets in the world to influence its research and creative execution. Specifically, we worked with the expansive data that powers the paradigm-shifting ChatGPT—which includes everything on the internet up until its knowledge cut-off date of September 2021.

DATA VISUALIZED THROUGH CONVERSATION

To bring this idea to life, we had to find a way to represent data that doesn’t exist. Rather than creating a visual model of ChatGPT’s output, we leaned into what the platform is built to do, exposing its data blind spot through conversation. This approach to data visualization worked due to ChatGPT’s human-like style. Targeted through social platforms, it formed a compelling contrast to what we all know to be true about the reality of the war.

A CONVERSATION WITH CHATGPT

We had a conversation with the platform itself, based on a hunch that it could yield a potent reminder for our war-fatigued world. First, we prompted the data to confirm the insight: the AI chatbot admittedly knows nothing after September 2021. Next, we got descriptive about the worst tragedies of the war, pursuing lines of insight in the way the technology is typically used today.

PROMPTING THE PARADOX

The strength of the idea lies in the strength of the contradictions between ChatGPT’s description of Ukraine and reality. We found the more specific we got about how we prompted it, the more apparent the AI chatbot’s data bias became. Its conversational nature did the rest of the work, visualizing that unexpected data in a familiar format—and eliciting an emotional response from viewers.

MOVING THE NEEDLE

The work ran across social media on the anniversary of the war in Ukraine. It generated emotional response and successfully prompted a large uptick in donations.

SWINGING THE PENDULUM

The work also contributed to a larger conversation. One infused with today’s philosophical debate about AI and our data revolution. It’s been featured in global press, most notably Fast Company, for its ability to challenge perceptions of how data and AI can best be used to serve our future. Specifically, how technology can be leveraged towards creating positive impact amid crises such as the war in Ukraine.

CHALLENGING HOW TECHNOLOGY SHAPES OUR WORLD

There is no greater news story of 2022 than the war in Ukraine. However, even a humanitarian crisis such as that loses relevance in today’s media landscape. While the people of Ukraine, many of whom live in bunkers and shelters, need no reminder of their situation—the rest of us did. It turned out the technology being adopted by billions overnight—our latest greatest solution to everything—was accidentally the answer to this specific problem. A powerful tension in a global society that has evolved to look towards technology to solve all the world’s issues. And a reminder of the role we can play in challenging the way technology shapes our world.