By Stephen Beech via SWNS
People can talk to a dodo – thanks to artificial intelligence.
Visitors to the University of Cambridge’s Museum of Zoology will get a unique chance to chat with some of the species on display – whether skeletal, stuffed or even extinct – from Tuesday, Oct. 15.
Museum assistant director Jack Ashby has chosen several animal specimens to bring back to life using generative AI in collaboration with the company Nature Perspectives.
It is believed to be the first time a museum has used generative AI to enable visitors to chat with objects on display in such a way.
Visitors can pose their questions to 13 species – including dodo and whale skeletons, a stuffed red panda, and a preserved cockroach – by scanning QR codes that open a chat-box on their mobile phone.
In two-way conversations, which can be voice- or text-based, the animals will answer as if they are still alive.
By analyzing data from the conversations, the team hopes that the month-long experiment will help them learn more about how AI can help the public to better engage with nature, and about the potential for AI in museums.
The project will also provide the museum with new insights into what visitors really want to know about the specimens on display.
Nature Perspectives uses AI to enable cultural institutions such as the Museum of Zoology to engage the public through conversational experiences.
Ashby said: “This is an amazing opportunity for people to test out an emerging technology in our inspiring Museum setting, and we also hope to learn something about how our visitors see the animals on display.
“Our whole purpose is to get people engaged with the natural world.
“So we’re curious to see whether this will work and whether chatting to the animals will change people’s attitudes towards them – will the cockroach be better liked, for example, as a result of having its voice heard?”
Gal Zanir, co-founder of Nature Perspectives, said: “By using AI to simulate non-human perspectives, our technology offers a novel way for audiences to connect with the natural world.
“One of the most magical aspects of the simulations is that they’re age-adaptive.
“For the first time, visitors of all ages will be able to ask the specimens anything they like.”
He explained that the technology brings together all available information on each animal involved – including details particular to the individual specimens such as where they came from and how they were prepared for display.
Zanir says the animals will adjust their tone and language to suit the age of the person they’re talking to.
And they are multi-lingual, speaking more than 20 languages including Spanish and Japanese.
As well as the dodo, visitors will be able to talk to a narwhal skeleton, a red admiral butterfly, a fin whale skeleton, a cockroach, a stuffed red panda, a freeze-dried platypus and a giant sloth fossil skeleton.
Nature Perspectives was created by a team of graduates from the University of Cambridge’s Masters in Conservation Leadership program.
They noticed that people seem to feel more connected to machines when they can talk to them.
That inspired the team to apply the same principle to nature.
Zanir added: “Enabling museums to engage visitors with the simulated perspectives of exhibits is only the first step for Nature Perspectives.
“We aim to apply this transformative approach widely, from public engagement and education to scientific research to representing nature in legal processes, policy-making and beyond.”
The Nature Perspectives AI experiment runs for one month, from tomorrow to Friday, November 15.
