The Met Launches AI-Driven ‘Talking’ Statues

The cathedral-like halls of the Medieval Galleries at the heart of New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art seem an unlikely home for artificial intelligence (AI). Yet visitors can now chat with four centuries-old sculptures the museum has brought to life through a collaboration with technology company AskMona.

Curious museum-goers can scan QR codes to “talk” to statues of Mary Magdalene, Saint Augustine, Saint Savina of Troyes and Balthazar by voice or text. The bespoke model underpinning the experience, dubbed Town Square AI, was trained on input from curators, conservators and provenance experts from the museum’s Medieval Art department, and each sculpture has been imbued with its own voice and story.

“They’ll answer questions about what they’re made of, where they came from, who they represent—and where the bathrooms and cafes are,” the Met’s senior project manager of emerging technologies, Brett Renfer, wrote in a LinkedIn post announcing the collaboration. 

The Met, meanwhile, described the project in a statement as “a complementary interpretation tool, in the service of curiosity, close observation, and access to the museum’s knowledge”.

Trial-running the experience, Ocula spoke with a 16th-century limestone sculpture of pilgrim saint Savina, which adopted a soft-spoken American accent to explain how it was made. Asked what informed the choice of accent, it said: “My voice is restrained to honour the quiet devotion and contemplation of the pilgrim saint I depict.”

The experience is available in four languages, including Spanish and Chinese. Switching languages to French, the avatar took on a more delicate and precise articulation. “I speak with the restraint and calm of a sacred object that has endured through time,” with a tone that “reflects the exhaustion of travellers who have come seeking solace before my image,” it said this time. 

Marion Carré, cofounder and chief executive of AskMona, said the experience is part of an ongoing initiative to refresh the Met’s medieval galleries and bring visitors closer to the works. Her company has worked with hundreds of cultural institutions on such projects.

As with many technological innovations in museums, the use of conversational AI has sparked debate about the institution’s role in interpreting objects. But Carré sees it as the latest chapter in a long-running conversation that has accompanied everything from wall labels to audio guides and mobile apps.

“You have this dual positioning of people who believe it should be just the artwork and nothing else, so sometimes they don’t even put up wall labels,” she told Ocula. “And other people who say, ‘actually, it is quite elitist to think this way’.”

Carré’s work has also prompted concerns that the technology could eventually replace human guides. She disagrees. “I think the best experience possible in the museum is to do it with a guide, but you can’t have a guide for every visitor,” she said.