[Special Feature: Encountering Books] Tadahiro Taniguchi: Bibliobattle in the Age of Generative AI — Discovering What It Means to Be "Human" Through Books

2023/08/08

Bibliobattle is a simple book introduction communication game that anyone can play. I first proposed it in 2007, and in 2010, volunteers organized the Bibliobattle Promotion Committee. Since then, various enthusiasts have continued to emerge, and it has spread throughout Japan along with the catchphrase, "Know the book through the person. Know the person through the book." Currently, the "National University Bibliobattle," a national competition for university students managed by the Yomiuri Shimbun, has continued for over 10 years (with a hiatus during the COVID-19 pandemic). However, the main focus of Bibliobattle is not such large competitions, but rather the small communication spaces held in local cafes and school classrooms.

The rules of Bibliobattle are simple. They are defined as follows:

1. Presenters gather with a book they found interesting to read.

2. Each person introduces their book in turn for 5 minutes.

3. After each presentation, all participants engage in a discussion about that presentation for 2 to 3 minutes.

4. After all presentations are finished, all participants cast one vote each based on the criteria "Which book did you want to read the most?" The book that receives the most votes becomes the "Champ Book."

Anything that does not follow these rules is not called a "Bibliobattle." A game is defined by its rules. It is the same as saying that soccer where you are allowed to use your hands is no longer soccer.

While Bibliobattle is sometimes perceived as a method for promoting reading, it is essentially a method for "creating a place to encounter books" and a mechanism for "knowledge sharing." Since there are not enough words to discuss this here, I would appreciate it if you could refer to my books such as "Bibliobattle: The Book Review Game to Know Books and People" (Bungeishunju), "Kamogawa Communication School: From Bibliobattle to Artificial Intelligence" (Sekai Shisosha), and "Mechanism Design of Communication Venues" (Keio University Press).

Now, times are changing. Since the release of ChatGPT at the end of 2022, a massive boom in generative AI has been occurring. This is also affecting the field of reading promotion, which is closely related to Bibliobattle. Book reports, which have often been compared to Bibliobattle for a long time, are being directly hit by this impact. It is the kind of story where "a student had ChatGPT write their book report."

The Japan School Library Association, which organizes book report contests for elementary, junior high, and high school students, quickly announced a ban on generative AI in March 2023. "Book reports," which involve reading and understanding the content written in a book, summarizing it or writing impressions in written language, and submitting it to an unseen recipient, are actually something that ChatGPT excels at.

What about Bibliobattle? Book reports and Bibliobattle are different. In Bibliobattle, the text generated by the presenter is not the goal. Its essence lies in the dynamics of the communication space where books are recommended, read, empathized with, and where people get to know each other. Therefore, Bibliobattle currently does not prohibit the use of generative AI, including ChatGPT.

The voting to decide the Champ Book in Bibliobattle is determined by the subjectivity of everyone present regarding whether they "wanted to read it." It is meaningless and will not resonate unless it is the presenter's own words spoken after having read the book themselves. A speaker who uses words generated by AI to express thoughts they do not actually hold will lose the trust of those around them.

About 10 years ago, I conducted research to clarify the nature of Bibliobattle as a "book recommendation system" by "performing comparative experiments with information recommendation methods such as content-based recommendation and collaborative filtering." Through this research, I once again recognized the fundamental difference between existing information recommendation systems and Bibliobattle. While many information recommendation systems refer to past reading and purchase histories to recommend things by guessing "You like this, don't you?", in Bibliobattle, recommendations are made according to the presenter's—the "person's"—own "love," saying "I like this. It's interesting, so I'm sure you'll like it too."

Generative AI is still nothing more than a tool. It is convenient and excellent, but it cannot become a human subject. Generative AI can generate reports from book information. Generative AI has destroyed the institution of the book report, which existed at that level. However, Bibliobattle is a mechanism for a communication space that creates the dynamics of interaction where people share knowledge, and therefore it does not exist at a level that can be destroyed by generative AI.

Generative AI is intensely questioning our intelligence and what it means to be human. Even in this era, Bibliobattle will continue to be a mechanism for a communication space where people "know books through people, and know people through books." Fifteen years have passed since its inception, but its true value is surely yet to be tested.