AI in Museums.
I have written a research essay on the current impacts and future potentials of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on the museum space. As AI has been quite widespread in museums in the last couple of years. It has also been a heated topic. And a topic that has raised a lot of debate regarding it either being of benefit or a drawback to the museum industry. This investigation reiterated and argued through various research in ideas and examples the benefits of this assisted technology on museums. And the positive outcomes this cutting-edge technology of AI has to offer.
Firstly, through my findings of research I found out that AI and Augmented Reality as form of AI really stimulate visitors’ and audiences’ interactions with artworks in the museum space; that through AI enabled technology audiences can engage with learning in a significant manner. One example of data that I found that was particularly interesting was from a team of academics from North Carolina State University. They researched the benefits that AI had on the interaction with the learning of new content in exhibition for students. The exhibition that they looked at closely was named the Future Worlds exhibition which was investigated by the academics at this University. They found that through engagement modelling that using AI technology students were more prone to learning. Through analysing the students’ behaviour, Emerson, Henderson, Min, et al. (2021) claim the data in ‘facial expression, posture, eye gaze, dialogue and interaction and trace data’ (p.94). This demonstrates that AI has a considerable benefit that enables in the learning of educational content to students, visitors, and audiences in museums.
The second advantage of AI that I found fascinating in the museum space was that this assisted technology can be very efficient and beneficial for museum employees. That through enhanced cataloguing and AI organisation of collections it makes it easier for museum workers to access and locate exhibition data and information. That before the creation and advancement of AI museum workers needed to carry out an-in depth study of works to recreate connections with collections and with fellow peers in the museum space. An article published by the American Alliance of Museums also demonstrates this claim that AI enables the managing of a massive scale of data. That through ‘visual recognition that use algorithms that easily unlock the potential of digital image collections by tagging, sorting, and drawing connections within and between museum databases’ (States News Service, 2024). This creates a more coherent and organised collection database and a cataloguing system.
Overall, it can be said that AI has transformed and will still revolutionises the way we as individuals interact with museums. With the global pandemic that limited physical access to museums we can say that AI played and is still playing a critical and crucial role in enhancing and allowing accessibility to all through the online content that AI generated, augmented reality and virtual reality for audiences.