People tell stories to other people to make sense of their experiences. This assertion seems like a truism that is central not only to the everyday understanding of communication but also to the academic study of narrative. However, with the rise of large language models and the general accessibility of GenAI platforms such as ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini, this basic assertion needs to be fundamentally revised: Today, stories are created and unfolded not only by humans but also in the interaction between humans and machines that are designed to communicate. For example, young adults increasingly share their everyday experiences, feelings, and thoughts with AI companions in the form of highly customizable and/or preexisting characters; parents learn to prompt personalized bedtime stories rather than read to their child from the existing children’s literature; and players immerse themselves in AI-generated storyworlds to enjoy the possibilities of creating and playing out infinite storylines. 

Under the heading of Human-Machine Narration (HMN), GAITS examines such instances of everyday narrative interaction between humans and GenAI and, thus, asks how the way we make sense of as well as with stories is transformed in the era of “communicative AI”. Understanding this question is particularly important because storytelling is a fundamental component of social cohesion and everyday sensemaking. While existing research on GenAI and narration has focused on institutionalized contexts such as art and literature, psychology, and journalism, human-machine narration in recreational, that is informal and everyday, settings remains underexplored. By focusing on recreational forms of human-machine narration – unfolded through, e.g., chatting, prompting, creating, telling, and playing with GenAI – from an emic perspective, we can begin to uncover how the current technological transformation affects human communication, sensemaking, and sociality. GAITS, thus, contributes with new knowledge on what people actually use GenAI platforms for outside pragmatic and professional ends and what relations, values, and challenges users experience through these.