Universal Narrative Model: an Author-centric Storytelling Framework for Generative AI

In their survey of authoring tools for computational narrative, Kybartas and Bidarra note that "we believe that creating a standard model of computational narrative could allow different systems to interact with the same narrative, without being restricted by incompatible models and definitions. Furthermore, such a model would also facilitate research into the generation of specific story components, e.g., allowing for multiple generators and even authors to collaborate on a given narrative" [Kybartas and Bidarra [2017]]. This paper proposes such a standard: the Universal Narrative Model (UNM). We foresee that generative AI will enable a new paradigm of storytelling technologies and processes: from assisting a writer of linear media (novels, film, television, etc.) by allowing them to test out scenes and characters before committing them to a script, all the way through to real-time storytelling systems in videogames which respond to a player's agency, and countless use cases in between [Peng et al. [2024]]. The UNM is designed to service any use case in which coherent narrative structure is a consideration, and in which authorial intent and direction is privileged. In the last five years, a robust body of research has demonstrated a wide variety of potential uses for computational narrative systems powered by generative AI, and some limited commercial deployments already exist [Yang et al. [2024], Hu et al. [2024]]. With such promise, however, comes a series of challenges: technical, narrative, and ethical. The goal of the Entertainment Technology Center's "Universal Narrative Model" project was to produce the UNM as an open standard. The ultimate directive of the project was to privilege, above all else, author-centric design and functionality, setting the stage for generative workflows which extend an author's narrative intent and creativity, rather than eclipse or replace it.