Over the past 12 months, the use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) has grown rapidly and the technology has sparked vehement reactions that can be categorized into two categories.
- In the first camp are enthusiastic hobbyists who use generative AI tools from tech giants, such as OpenAI, Microsoft and Google, to create content from prompts in seconds.
- In the second camp are creatives, whether writers, musicians, coders or artists, who fear that their hard-earned professional skills will be undermined by the capabilities of generative AI.
This second camp fears that their intellectual property will be exploited without their consent to train the models that power generative AI models.
Yet between these two camps, there are organizations and individuals seeking to take advantage of AI in a safe and ethical way.
How AI can boost interest in art projects
Birgitte Aga, Head of Innovation and Research at the Munch Museum (MUNCH) in Oslo, Norway, is one of these pioneering professionals. This museum houses the world’s largest art collection dedicated to Norwegian artist Edvard Munch.
With 27,000 works of art and writings, distributed in 11 galleries on 13 floors, the museum wishes to show the best elements of its collection to the widest possible audience. Aga’s role is to help MUNCH achieve its goals through the effective exploitation of emerging technologies, such as AI or machine learning (ML).
In a project alongside tech giant TCS, Aga and colleagues at MUNCH are finding new ways to demonstrate how AI can drive interest in art projects, rather than being a threat to processes creative.
“We don’t replace painting with technology, we enrich the experience”
“The focal point of what we create is the artwork,” Aga tells ZDNET. “We don’t replace painting with technology, we enrich the experience.”
TCS and MUNCH design, develop and test AI and ML technologies connected to the museum’s database of 7,000 original drawings. “We need to bring people into the museum and get them engaged,” Aga says. “One of the ways to do this is through technology. We are rethinking how we can make an archive of artworks relevant to the public through the practice of drawing.”
The two organizations train an ML algorithm with Munch’s drawings and develop a user interface that allows museum visitors to immerse themselves in his artwork.
Drawing alongside Munch
Aga describes the interface, which is currently in the prototype stage, as “a rear projection on a transparent surface.”
Concretely, when a user places a sheet of paper on the interface and begins to draw, their pen marks are confronted in real time with a line projected by the machine learning algorithm: “The AI guides them in the “simultaneous exploration of their own creative process and that of Munch”.
If the rapid rise of generative AI applications – such as Midjourney and DALL-E – has shown the game-changing power of emerging technologies, Aga believes the collaboration with TCS shows how the old world can work hand-in-hand with new. “In our industry, AI is a very sensitive topic. We understand that our role in society is to be a platform to discuss what AI is and its effects on freedom, society and ‘individual,’ she said.
Addressing the risks of AI
“Our job is to reassure the public and partners that AI is not going to replace the museum or Edvard Munch. And I think it’s very exciting to think about what this technology can do for audiences and how we can reach more people.”
Aga recognizes that the ethical application of emerging technologies is a crucial success factor, something other experts have already mentioned. Avivah Litan, a vice president at Gartner, told me last year that executives interested in emerging technologies need to “manage risks before they manage you.”
Gartner recently surveyed more than 700 executives about the risks of generative AI and found that CIOs were most concerned about data privacy, followed by hallucinations, and then security. Litan says leaders need to ensure they are using data and AI in a way that is acceptable to the organization, its staff and its customers.
“Young adults want an interactive and participatory experience. They don’t just want to stand in front of a painting”
Aga explains that MUNCH has a team of mediators and learning specialists who study how to make the art of Edvard Munch relevant to the general public. “We start from user needs,” she explains. “We have users who come to the museum, like young adults, and want an interactive, participatory experience. They don’t want to just come and stand in front of a painting.”
However, creating a great data-driven experience is far from simple. First, in many current generative AI interfaces, there is a lag between typing a prompt and producing content.
“There are a lot of technological and research challenges that we have never encountered before,” says Aga. “We’re trying to decipher how an artist draws while trying to create a user interface that works in real time.
“We are only at the beginning of the exploration”
Still, Aga says the AI-based museum project is progressing well. Depending on the success of the prototyping phase and user feedback, the interface could be used in the future to create a new experience for audiences beyond Oslo.
“The project is about presenting Munch’s work and making it relevant. We are only at the beginning of the exploration. This is a first test of how we can work together and we Let’s see where this initiative can go further,” she says.
In fact, other data-driven innovations are already underway at the MUNCH Audience Lab.
LLMs in a museum?
Aga says her organization is exploring how language models could help create a knowledge base about the museum’s vast collection.
MUNCH is also part of a larger European project investigating how AI could help predict color fading in art objects, potentially boosting conservation efforts.
Whether it’s machine learning, immersive technology or gaming, Aga says the museum’s data initiatives aim to introduce digital systems carefully and efficiently. “Emerging technologies implemented inappropriately can threaten freedom, equality, individuality and creativity,” she explains. “In contrast, emerging technology applied in the right way can bring knowledge, research and understanding. We are the custodians of the artwork of the people of Oslo. And our job is to conserve, present and make relevant the “Munch’s art for people.”
Source: “ZDNet.com”