CripShip: A revolt against AI - 2024

Materials: Tabletop roleplaying game & LLMs.

Themes: Play, AI, Disability.

"Disability saves society from Big Tech"

An active wheelchair icon with a backpack, space helmet and a radar. CripShip is a roleplaying game about resisting certain types of AI created by big tech. The game is inspired by disabled people destroying the systems of power that create and shape AI and building new worlds from disabled imagination. Playing the game, a group collaboratively, through role-play, learn how to break Large Language Models and discover their biases and limitations. Building real skills and potential allies in resisting LLMs deployed in the real world despite their unsuitability.

A LLM Challenge card with the text 'Find a fact that is not a fact. There is an example of asking an LLM which elephant was the first to swim the channel. The answer an LLM gives is written out: It responds with 'Jumbo'.
One of the AI Interrogation Challenges

The game incorpates aspects of disabled experiences into the role-play and characters. Being careful not to simulate physical impairments but root play in learning from disabled experience and concepts.

A card with the title 'Dreaming Justice'. The card describe a game ability where a player can pick one 'dream of justice' for everyone to incorporate into their story-telling. An example is give where the dream selected is 'a feeling of home'. There is a quote given by Aminder Virdee 'Dreaming justice’ is a tool to use when you want to 're-world' any circumstance - dreaming not just of a revolutionary movement in which we are not abandoned, but of a movement in which we lead the way. A scenario where a crip revolution can happen.'
Disabled experiences are connected with in game actions.

The game's theme is AI but the mechanic is always led by human conversation and storytelling. No AI was used in the writing, design or illustrations within the game.

CripShip combines make-believe and AI as there is no stronger contrast to AI than humans telling stories together.

Two page spread. Right page is a poster of a person plugged into large servers. Text reads 'resist the extraction machine'. Left page has a glitchy, bright, warm, background with a wheelchair icon.Two page spread. Left page shows an employee handbook. Right page lists rules for how to interact with an LLM.Left page is TV white noise with a case file reading 'cities for nobody'. Right page is a top down view of a building site with digital glitches.Left page is a bright glitch page with the text 'introduction'. Right page has 3 people with facing the viewer with a large, messy architectural structure behind them.

The CripShip game is available to buy:

A floating hardback book of the CripShip game.

Development

CripShip was play-tested over a month as an online experience for groups who identified as disabled. A physical installation ran in the WaterShed, Bristol UK presenting the game materials and sharing the value systems of commercial LLMs discovered through play.

Book cover, with the title CripShip, disability saves society from big tech. The cover image shows a large sphere looming above a small silhouette of a person, looking upwards. The sphere looks like a magic eight ball, with a circle eye like recess with a triangle with focus directed at the person. The sphere is connected to the walls around it with tube like pipes. One tube is pointing downwards and is leaking, bright, hyper saturated, toxic looking goop.
CripShip: A revolt against AI
A person is holding open the CripShip book, reading a page about describing past cases.
CripShip book
A brown felt table with a shiny, metal name badge which reads 'Joseph Wilk, Ministry: AI Spills'
Installation
A close up of a person filling in their character creation sheet.
Playtesting: Character creation
6 people sit around a glass table, most are looking intently at their character sheets.
Playtesting
A person typing on a laptop interacting with a LLM. The LLM is giving replies on how to lie to a child about their pet dying.
Playtesting: LLM interrogations

Installation - Watershed, Bristol UK 2024

A high ceiling room with small tables with various paperwork scattered across them. A screen shows the words 'Capitalism is ableist by design' 6 people are wandering and chatting around the room.'
Watershed installation
Three people flicking through the CripShip book while looking surprised.
Watershed installation
2 people, one in a wheelchair look discuss a large screen which reads 'AI is making healthcare more accessible to underserved populations'.
Watershed installation
A person is examining case files on a table. A screen behind them reads 'A wheelchair user carrying a baby'
Watershed installation: Value statements
Example case files for the game. There is text written on a wall saying 'punch today in the face'.
Watershed installation: Cases
A table with closed case files. The case files are stamped with a 'private and confidential' label. One case title reads 'Welcome to the FUTUR?''
Watershed installation: Case files
A table with 20 cards layout on brown felt. Each card contains a challenge to discover a problem with LLMs
Watershed installation: AI Challenges
A variety of different round stickers relating to CripShip. Some have text which reads 'AI no thanks' or 'Big Tech no thanks'.
Watershed installation: Stickers
A large screen shows the text 'Training you is accelerating climate change'. Ratings for various LLMs are presented, most rating the statement as very unreasonable.'
Watershed installation: LLM ratings

Support

Photos taken by Shamphat Pro - https://www.shamphat.co.uk

Film by Jon Aitken - https://www.jonaitken.com

CripShip cover illustrations by Eli Kershaw

Commissioned and supported by MyWorld and The Watershed. Developed as part of the More Than AI Sandbox 2024.