‘The Living Museum’ project offers an AI-powered interactive exploration of 1.2 million objects from the Museum’s collection records.
A new AI-powered online project allows website visitors to ‘chat’ with millions of the British Museum’s collection objects.
‘The Living Museum’ is an online paroject created by Jonathan Talmi, an independent AI engineer.
Visitors to the website can select from one of an estimated 1.2 million objects currently held by the British Museum, and ‘converse’ with the object to ask for details about its history.
The project provides an AI language model with the object’s information to inform and colour the conversation.
On The Living Museum’s website, Talmi argues that the “core museum experience has remained largely unchanged in our lifetimes.
“Curators use art and historical artifacts to tell stories about people, places, and things, but the experience is passive, leaving little room for exploration and inquiry. As a result, visitors may struggle to create meaningful connections with these objects and the knowledge they represent.
“Meanwhile, the world is undergoing rapid technological change. Generative AI models can simulate characters, scenes, and in the not-too-distant future, entire worlds, with striking realism. Conversational agents that are indistinguishable from humans will soon be ubiquitous.”
The website’s interface allows users to search for objects by filtering attributes such as museum department, culture/time period, object type, and place of origin.
But the website also allows for search using only natural language, allowing visitors to ‘curate’ collections just by describing attributes.
“We believe the appropriate use of technology can increase immersion, thereby improving educational outcomes, without sacrificing the authenticity required for historical and cultural institutions” Tami writes.
The project, which is still in development, is available to explore at livingmuseum.app/explore.
