Museum visitors to have AI chats with dodo
Visitors to a natural history museum will be able to have two-way chats with animals on display using generative artificial intelligence (AI).
The University of Cambridge's Museum of Zoology has chosen 13 specimens for the conversations, including the extinct flightless bird the dodo, narwhal and blue fin whale skeletons, a red panda, and a preserved cockroach.
Assistant director Jack Ashby said its purpose was to get people engaged with the natural world, as well as providing insights into what visitors wanted to know about the displays.
Visitors will scan a QR code near the exhibit with their phones to start a conversation with each specimen. The month-long experiment starts on Tuesday.
Mr Ashby said: "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?"
He described it as "an amazing opportunity for people to test out an emerging technology" in a museum setting, with exhibits that could communicate in more than 20 languages.
The initiative is a collaboration with the company Nature Perspectives, which uses AI to help institutions like the museum engage the public through conversational experiences.
Co-founder Gal Zanir said visitors would be encouraged to ask any questions that interested them and "the replies are crafted from the animal's simulated point of view", drawing on scientific knowledge and the species' unique traits.
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