A museum exhibition showcasing AI has allowed dead animals to speak: 'Can we alter the public perception of an cockroach's voice by giving it a mouth?'

I've always found talking museum exhibits a little creepy. As someone who spent his childhood wandering through WW2 exhibitions I was often confronted by a horrifying, waxwork in a helmet expressing his disapproval of Axis in overacted Shakespearean tones.

"But what about animals?" ", said nobody in particular. Thanks to AI (tm) a new exhibit at Cambridge University's Museum of Zoology brings speech to dead animal displays (via The Guardian). These aren't pre-recorded audio monologues, either. Older models and creatures can "converse via voice or text on visitors' mobile phones."

AI is fed information about each exhibit (including its journey after, errr, death), as well as general information about species. It generates a speech that is engaging and informative, and can be tailored to the age and nationality the exhibit is speaking to. This creates a variety of stereotypes about animals based on their region of origin.

The koala sounds Australian and the mallard like a Brit. I don't understand why the British got waterbirds, but there is a joke about dead ducks in there and our current standing as a country. You talk to the dead and they talk back. Sweet!

Jack Ashby, assistant director of the museum, said: "When you speak to these animals, they come across as personalities. It's a strange experience." "I began by asking questions like 'where were you born?' and how did you die', but I ended up with much more human-like questions."

Even less-loved creatures like insects are included, and Ashby hopes that by talking directly to one (or, at least, an artificial intelligence trained to "think" as one), we might change our perceptions of these creatures.

"Part of the test is to see if people change their minds about these animals by giving them their own voices." Can we change public perception by giving a cockroach a voice?

I honestly don't. I wouldn't be as likely to squash one if it spoke in a charming Belgian accent, but as a museum exhibit it would certainly be better than a stuffed one that stares at me voiceless in its glass tomb.

Nature Perspectives, a company that created the AI models which allow the dead to talk, designed the project. The exhibition will run for one month, probably as a test period. If it is a success, I would personally like to see the project expanded to other museums.

I don't see the point in limiting it to animals. It would have been a great way to spend my childhood. Imagine this:

"I, the mighty Spitfire once flew over the skies of Great Britain with the glorious thrum from my Rolls-Royce Merlin engines resonating above the green hills below. Innit mate."