AI Gives Voice to Dead Animals in Cambridge's Biodiversity Exhibit
The Museum of Zoology at Cambridge University has launched an AI exhibition project that brings dead animals back to life, enabling them to interact with people through voices.
This exhibition features a dozen displays, including a cockroach, a dodo, a red panda, and a fin whale skeleton, all of which have gained the ability to ‘speak’ with visitors through interactive storytelling.
The month-long initiative, starting Tuesday, aims to raise awareness about biodiversity by allowing the animals to narrate their own stories.
AI Animals with Unique Personalities
Each exhibit in this museum has been infused with an individual personality, voice, and accent enabled through AI for museum technology, giving them the ability to talk on mobile phones. The animals shared all the specifics about their lives, challenges, and even thoughts about the life after death.
According to Jack Ashby, assistant director of the museum, it is meant to change the public perception of these creatures by letting them “speak” to visitors.
“Museums are using AI in different ways, but this is the first time we’re letting objects tell their own stories,” Ashby said, adding that by giving animals their voice, people would develop an empathy with them and be more conscious about the biodiversity crisis.
AI museum animals can talk more than 20 languages using a variation in their tone, depending on the user’s age. Each animal has a distinctive voice that reflects its background, an Australian accent for the platypus and British for the mallard.
These AI and museum animals were developed by the company Nature Perspectives, aiming to increase the attraction of people with the natural world.
The AI exhibition museum’s dodo, for example-a nearly perfectly complete specimen of only a few in the world describes its life in Mauritius and how it used its strong mouth to crack tough fruits. It even shares opinions on whether people should bring the species back through cloning, underlining the importance of its natural ecosystem.
Shedding the Light on Biodiversity Crisis
The idea behind the AI museum is to provide information, enabling visitors to virtually ask the animals many questions, such as about the food they eat, or even deeper questions related to their existence.
From his part, Ashby hopes these live AI exhibition conversations might hold people in ways the inactive displays alone cannot.
“When you talk to these animals, they feel like real personalities. It’s a very strange experience,” added Ashby.
Conversations with the exhibits will also be analyzed to get a better understanding of what visitors want to know about the specimens.
Through such AI-powered conversations, the museum wants to trigger the interest of people in the natural world and raise greater awareness of the current biodiversity crisis.
Inside Telecom provides you with an extensive list of content covering all aspects of the tech industry. Keep an eye on our Intelligent Tech sections to stay informed and up-to-date with our daily articles.