Animals at the Cambridge University Museum of Zoology Can Converse with Visitors Through a Phone Using AI Technology.
More than 12 specimens, ranging from American cockroaches and dodos to red pandas and a fin whale skeleton, will be granted the “ability to converse” thanks to artificial intelligence (AI). The animals at the Museum of Zoology will share their stories, even recounting experiences after death.
The museum houses one of the most complete dodo bird skeletons in the world. (Photo: Cambridge University).
Equipped with their own voices and personalities, the specimens can engage in conversation via voice or text through visitors’ phones. This technology allows them to describe their time on Earth and the challenges they faced, with hopes of reversing human indifference towards the biodiversity crisis.
Jack Ashby, the museum’s assistant director, noted that many museums use AI in various ways, but “this is the first application that allows specimens to express their own viewpoints.” “Part of the experiment is to see if giving animals their own voice changes how people think about them. Can public perception of a cockroach be altered by giving it a voice?”, said Jack Ashby.
The project is developed by Nature Perspectives, a company working on AI models to enhance the connection between humans and the natural world. For each specimen, AI is provided with detailed information about its habitat, natural environment, how it was collected, and all relevant details about the species it represents.
The fin whale skeleton hanging from the museum’s ceiling. (Photo: Cambridge University).
The specimens will change their tone and language to suit the age of the interlocutor and can converse in more than 20 languages, including Spanish and Japanese. The platypus speaks with an Australian accent, the red panda has a Himalayan accent, and the mallard converses with a British accent. Through these live conversations, Ashby hopes that visitors will learn much more than what is available on the specimen labels.
Conversations between visitors and specimens will be analyzed to gain insights into the information that people want to know. AI suggests several questions, such as asking the fin whale “tell me about life in the ocean“, but visitors can ask anything they wish.
Ashby shared: “When you talk to these animals, they really come across as individuals with their own personalities, and that is a very strange experience.”
