The World’s First “ChatGPT Literature Symposium” Achieves Remarkable Results
The Emergence of the “Toronto School of AI Literature”
North America Outlook | Reported by Ruixiang Sun (Jack Sun) — On March 3, 2023, the “ChatGPT Literature Symposium” was successfully held online from Toronto, Canada, and broadcast globally via YouTube. As the first international high-level forum dedicated to the intersection of ChatGPT and literary creation, the event gathered leading scholars, engaged directly with cutting-edge theory, and drew widespread attention across sectors—yielding significant outcomes.
On November 30, 2022, OpenAI launched ChatGPT, a general-purpose chatbot powered by large language model technology. Within weeks, it gained worldwide popularity, especially in fields such as literature and journalism, sparking a wave of experimentation. In response to this wave, the Global Alumni Summit Canada Committee, together with the Toronto Liaison Office of the Zhongguancun Science Park Administration, Chinese PEN Canada, the Canadian University Literary Society, and the Chinese University Alumni Calligraphy and Art Committee, jointly hosted the “ChatGPT Literature Symposium.” The goal was to promote understanding of AI-powered chatbots, encourage literary creation with ChatGPT, foster dialogue between humanities scholars and AI technologists, and advance the cultural industrialization of artificial intelligence.
During the symposium, welcome remarks were delivered by key organizers: Zhilai Zhang, Chairman of the Global Alumni Summit Canada Committee; Guangli Wang, Director of the Zhongguancun Science Park Toronto Liaison Office; and Yuanye, President of the Canadian University Literary Society. They extended warm congratulations on the success of the world’s first symposium dedicated to ChatGPT literature.
Symposium Explores Six Key Topics in AI Literature
The symposium focused on six hot-button issues:
- The creative quality of AI-generated literary works
- The distinction between AI-generated and human-authored literature
- The impact of AI on journalism and media culture
- Copyright issues surrounding AI-generated content
- The influence of AI literature on university-level literary education
- Future outlook: the evolving relationship, division of roles, and influence of AI on human life
Keynote speakers included renowned scholars and writers Jin Pang, Yan Li, Bo Sun, and Ruixiang Sun, with Liming Dong serving as the panel commentator. The event was hosted by Jie Yang, a prominent Canadian presenter and senior reporter for OMNI TV’s City Focus, while Dawei Yuan, Secretary-General of the Global Alumni Summit Canada Committee, provided technical support for the Zoom conference and YouTube livestream.
Each topic featured one main speaker, followed by responses from other panelists, expert commentary, and live audience Q&A. All guest speakers had personally engaged in ChatGPT-based writing experiments, and their presentations were grounded in practical insights, strong theoretical frameworks, and real-world examples.
“Beyond the bamboo, peach blossoms bloom; the duck senses the spring before others know.”
This two-hour-plus symposium proved to be intellectually stimulating, forward-looking, and rich in discussion. The pre-event announcement attracted over 100,000 views in a short span. The 100-person Zoom meeting room was at full capacity, with many more watching live on YouTube. The Zoom chat saw lively discussion, as participants debated the emerging phenomenon of “ChatGPT style” or “AI-driven literature,” praised the guest speakers’ insight, and expressed anticipation for the emergence of a “Toronto School of AI Literature.”
To mark the occasion, speaker and calligrapher Jin Pang composed and presented a calligraphic inscription for the event:
“As AI sweeps across the globe, it is up to our insight and adaptability to forge new paths.”
World’s First ChatGPT Literature Symposium: Summary and Future Vision
Zhilai Zhang, Chairman of the Global Alumni Summit Canada Committee, delivered the symposium’s concluding remarks and outlined plans for the future. He declared that this symposium marked the first-ever global event focused on ChatGPT-generated literature and had achieved significant outcomes.
He announced several key initiatives:
– Publication of an anthology featuring ChatGPT literary works and research papers submitted by experts and participants
– Establishment of a ChatGPT Literary Research Institute under the Global Alumni Summit to promote the cultural industrialization of artificial intelligence
– Creation of a ChatGPT Literature Group to guide, promote, and popularize AI-driven literary creation, as well as collect and analyze related data
– Partnerships with Chinese tech parks (including Zhongguancun), Canadian universities, cultural institutions, and AI organizations to jointly advance the industrial application of AI-based cultural products
The “ChatGPT Literature Symposium” served as the opening event of the 2nd Global Alumni Summit and Expo 2023, held in Toronto. This year’s summit featured 12 forum series.
The Global Alumni Summit, hosted by the International Investment and Financing Forum Headquarters (WFEChina.com) and the North America Office of City Financial News (csjrw.cn), was established in 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic as an international high-level brand platform. Its mission is to foster alumni networks worldwide, promote cultural and technological exchange, build elite alumni social circles, and encourage mutual support—contributing to the global digital economy in the post-pandemic era.
Highlights from Guest Speakers and Commentators (in order of appearance)
Bo Sun (renowned writer and screenwriter, President of Chinese PEN Canada, and Vice President of the Canadian Multicultural Media Alliance) shared his views on the current capabilities of ChatGPT in literary creation, stating that AI-generated literature remains at a preliminary stage.
Through case studies, Sun invited ChatGPT to write an essay titled “A Chance Encounter with My Primary School Teacher from Shanghai in Toronto”, and had six writers independently evaluate the piece. The average score was 73.3, indicating a decent performance. Most writers agreed that the essay was coherent, logically structured, and generally readable. However, some also remarked that it lacked originality, read like formulaic writing, and felt unmistakably machine-generated. The absence of emotionally engaging details and personalized language made it feel generic, relying more on abstract moralizing than authentic experience.
Sun also tasked ChatGPT with mimicking Zhu Ziqing’s classic prose “The Back View of My Father”, prompting it to write a similar piece titled “My Father’s Back”. He scored the result at 60 points, describing it as underwhelming. He emphasized that in prose writing, the essence lies in unique perspectives and genuine emotion—rich, vivid details are the backbone of any compelling essay. Yet, ChatGPT’s version delivered generalized platitudes lacking emotional resonance. He wryly noted that the AI seemed to have consumed too much “chicken soup for the soul” during training, resulting in rigid, templated output that lacks life.
Sun concluded that while ChatGPT’s current literary work lacks soul and sophistication, it is not without value. It can inspire reflection and accelerate the writing process. As ChatGPT itself often says: “AI is here to serve humanity, not replace it.” What AI still lacks—creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving—are precisely the elements that define human intelligence. Literature, being a deeply creative endeavor, will always require human imagination. Therefore, writers need not fear displacement, and literature will not decline.
Ruixiang Sun (Professor of Journalism, Doctor of Literature, Fudan University Class of 1982, former Dean of the School of Journalism and Communication at Tianjin Normal University, and founder of Canada Observer and North America Outlook) delivered a presentation titled “Testing ChatGPT in News Reporting and Analyzing Its Impact.”
He argued that the application of ChatGPT has disrupted traditional concepts in journalism and communication studies, challenging long-held assumptions. While ChatGPT can serve as an auxiliary tool in the news production process—such as sourcing materials, summarizing content, and organizing data—it cannot replace professional journalists.
Sun emphasized that ChatGPT generates content from existing data (“stock information”) rather than new discoveries (“incremental information”), and its journalistic abilities remain immature. It lacks the capability to uncover real news value, and its outputs often suffer from a lack of timeliness and questionable accuracy. Crucially, ChatGPT has no physical presence, originality, or critical thinking, rendering it incapable of performing in-depth reporting, human-interest features, or opinion pieces—genres that demand creativity and context sensitivity.
He warned that over-reliance on AI in journalism could dilute professional standards, leading to content that is formulaic and mediocre. He also pointed out that the way questions are posed to ChatGPT plays a critical role in shaping the output—vague or broad prompts tend to produce unsatisfactory or inaccurate content. In this sense, human-AI interaction design is an emerging discipline.
Sun concluded that our understanding of ChatGPT is still in its infancy, and any definitive judgment is premature. Notably, ChatGPT has yet to pass the Turing Test, and to date, no AI model has successfully done so.
He summarized his perspective with three key takeaways:
Our attitude should be: embrace it actively, approach it cautiously, recognize its limited impact for now, and remain hopeful for its future potential.
ChatGPT equips humanity with lighter wings to navigate a complex world.
The problems posed by man-made ChatGPT must ultimately be solved by humans.
Yan Li, Professor at Renison University College, University of Waterloo, Director of the Centre for Chinese Studies, and a bilingual Chinese-English writer, shared her insights on the topic “The Impact of AI-Generated Literature on University Literature Curricula.”
She noted that in recent months, the University of Waterloo has issued multiple notices advising faculty on how to address student use of AI for coursework. Faculty members have actively shared tools and software that help identify whether students have used AI like ChatGPT to complete assignments.
Li pointed out that due to the nature of ChatGPT’s design—focused more on simulating human linguistic expression and conversational norms rather than delivering precise factual content—its outputs tend to be stylistically neutral, emotionally flat, and lacking in personal voice. Moreover, when objective facts are involved, errors frequently occur. Literature course assignments, in contrast, often require students to engage critically with classic texts and to express their own interpretations from a personal perspective. When teachers suspect AI involvement, the use of institutional verification tools typically confirms the misconduct.
However, the prevalence of AI-generated assignments has prompted Li to reflect more deeply on how we define learning and academic dishonesty. Currently, universities view ChatGPT primarily as a threat to academic integrity. But Li argued that if AI can help students efficiently access a broad range of information, facilitate multidimensional thinking, and inspire them to synthesize their own viewpoints, then this use of technology could be educationally valuable and should not be dismissed outright.
In addition, based on her long-term engagement in bilingual writing and translation, Li emphasized the communication barriers between languages that hinder human understanding. She believes that AI-assisted translation in cultural exchange is highly efficient and holds great promise, meriting further research, refinement, and widespread application.
Jin Pang, writer, member of the China Writers Association, recipient of China’s first Bing Xin Prose Award, senior editor at Xi’an Daily, and holder of a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from Shaanxi Normal University and a master’s degree in literature from Northwest University, shared his reflections on the emergence of ChatGPT as a milestone in artificial intelligence and a signal of the dawn of the Intelligence Era.
Pang noted that human society has progressed through four major epochs: hunting and gathering, agriculture, industry, and information. The Intelligence Era represents the fifth stage, building upon the foundation of the Information Age, with artificial intelligence (AI) as its defining force. ChatGPT, with its powerful conversational capabilities, embodies the active presence of AI in everyday life. He emphasized that AI—characterized by its simulation of the human brain, massive data capacity, supercomputing power, deep learning, and wide application—will fundamentally and revolutionarily transform production and lifestyles, leaving a profound impact on human society.
AI will elevate the human-machine relationship as a central issue, evolving literary creation from “sole authorship” to co-authorship between humans and machines. As AI becomes integrated into all sectors and timeframes, it will form what Pang describes as the fifth major relationship—alongside humanity’s relationships with nature, society, the self, and transcendence. This human-machine relationship will primarily be complementary, cooperative, and competitive, but also inherently conflicted, potentially giving rise to challenges such as privacy violations, bias in evaluation, decision-making errors, job displacement, security risks, and ethical controversies.
In the realm of literature, AI will increasingly influence creation through its impact on knowledge, thought, experience, and dissemination. Although current AI-generated literary work remains at a basic to intermediate level, and issues such as copyright remain unresolved, the direction is clear: collaboration between human creativity and machine intelligence is on the rise.
Pang concluded with a powerful call to action:
“As AI sweeps across the world, we must adapt with clarity and wisdom, and forge new creative paths.”
We should embrace the Intelligence Era, adapt to its changes, learn new knowledge, master new skills, pursue new innovations, and live with renewed purpose.
Liming Dong, Co-Chair of the Global Alumni Summit Canada Committee, Vice President of the World Association for Chinese Mass Media, and Editor-in-Chief of Today Canada, with a master’s degree in media from the Hamburg Academy of Fine Arts in Germany, offered the following key commentary:
Mr. Dong reflected on the diverse insights shared by the speakers regarding AI-generated literature, noting that six major topics were addressed. He posed a rhetorical question: Do these topics truly capture the full scope of discussion around AI-generated literary works? To answer, he turned to ChatGPT itself and shared its response:
“Yes, these topics encompass the key areas of discussion related to AI-generated literature. They examine its influence and future development from various perspectives, including creative quality, differences from human-authored works, its impact on journalism and media culture, relevance to university literature curricula, and the evolving relationship between AI and humanity—including its division of labor and influence on human life. These themes provide a broad and meaningful foundation for the continued study and advancement of AI literature.”
Mr. Dong emphasized that collaboration between writers and AI technologists is already underway around the world. For example, Pulitzer Prize winner Colson Whitehead worked with computer scientist Nick Montfort to co-create the novel 1 the Road, in which one of the main characters was generated by an AI program. A particularly notable case is the collaboration between renowned Chinese sci-fi author Liu Cixin and the AI robot Xiaoice on the novel Silent Confession, where Xiaoice provided plot and characters, while Liu shaped the literary style and narrative techniques. These examples signal a growing integration of AI in literary creation.
However, Dong acknowledged that most literary professionals are not familiar with AI technologies, which raises the challenge: How can we bridge the gap between writers and technologists? He proposed three concrete approaches:
- Promote AI literacy among writers by introducing them to fundamental AI concepts and application scenarios.
- Establish interdisciplinary collaboration mechanisms to facilitate communication and joint projects between AI engineers and literary professionals.
- Continue hosting symposiums and training events like this one to enable deeper understanding of each field’s practices, goals, and insights.
In closing, Dong reflected on the broader context of the discussion:
“We gather here today to explore the growing influence and application of AI—especially ChatGPT—in various aspects of social life. While this technology has brought great convenience and fascination, we must recognize that ChatGPT is still in its infancy. It represents only an early stage in the evolution of artificial intelligence. Precisely because we believe in its immense potential, we bring such energy and passion to these discussions and experiments.”
His remarks framed the symposium not just as a conversation about technology, but as a shared effort to shape the cultural future of the AI age.
The symposium was attended by over a hundred participants, including:
Zhilai Zhang, Chairman of the Global Alumni Summit Canada Committee;
Guangli Wang, Director of the Zhongguancun Science Park Toronto Liaison Office;
Bo Sun, President of Chinese PEN Canada;
Yuanye, President of the Canadian University Literary Society;
Jin Pang, member of the China Writers Association;
Yan Li, Professor at Renison University College, University of Waterloo;
Professor Ruixiang Sun, former Dean of the School of Journalism and Communication at Tianjin Normal University;
Liming Dong, Co-Chair of the Global Alumni Summit Canada Committee;
Dawei Yuan, Secretary-General of the Global Alumni Summit Canada Committee;
Professor Xifeng Feng, Toronto Metropolitan University;
Dr. Xiaoming Guo, McGill University;
Meijun Lin, President of the Chinese Writers Association of South America;
Yuanzong Liu, President of the North University of China Alumni Association of Canada and administrator of the Chinese University Alumni Association Group (Canada);
Xiaoyan Song, President of the Southwest University Alumni Association of Canada;
Shijin Mu, President of the Lanzhou University Alumni Association in Toronto;
Maokun Gong, President of the Chang’an University Alumni Association of Canada;
Lan Yu, President of the Southwest University of Science and Technology Alumni Association of Canada;
Yongping Ju, President of the Tianjin University Alumni Association in Toronto;
Yiqin Wu, President of the Shanghai University Alumni Association of Canada;
Zhijun Zhou, President of the Shaanxi Association of Canada;
Chengzhang Yu and Bingzhang Yu, Presidents of the He Feng Association of Canada;
Xiaoyan Zhang, Chair of the Dongfengcai Art Troupe;
As well as council members of the Global Alumni Summit Canada Committee: Rong Chen, Yongqiong Wang, Guoyan Huang, and Miaomiao Lü;
Wang Qingchuan and Liu Ping from the Shaanxi Normal University Alumni Association of Canada, among others.
