If artificial intelligence was not already present in our lives (whether we knew it or not!), the year 2020 guaranteed that it is now.
With a pandemic enveloping our world for the majority of the year and continuing to impact us today, we have turned to our smart devices at record rates. We’ve used them to order groceries and dinner, to stream movies and watch live concerts, to work and attend school virtually, to celebrate milestone birthdays and holidays with loved ones from afar, and so much more.
Deep inside each of these interactions is artificial intelligence, one of the most significant technologies in the world today, but also one of the most misunderstood. The region will soon have the opportunity to get a closer look at this technology as Discovery Place Science opens its newest traveling exhibition, Artificial Intelligence: Your Mind & The Machine, on January 16.
“Artificial intelligence is the single most important technology being developed today, by far. Every large company and every government in the world is developing AI. It is part of every conversation about the future of education, jobs and consumer products,” says HP Newquist, executive director of The Relayer Group, who produced the exhibition. “Yet very few people know what AI is, or what it does. We want to provide people with a way to understand AI so that it is real and relevant, not mysterious or frightening. At the same time, we want to show visitors that AI can change the world in ways that might be good and bad. We should all think about how that might happen.”
Presenting information in interactive and accessible ways, the AI exhibition lets visitors explore smart machines to see how they work and learn about the concept of man-made intelligence. They can also, see how the human brain goes through the process of learning and compare it to how machines are taught to “think.”
Guests can interact with various examples of practical AI – from computers that translate stories into different languages and an intelligent piano player that helps anyone sound like a virtuoso to a real-time AI painter that creates images of visitors in different art styles and applications capable of determining guests’ ages and emotions.
“We are excited to be among the first museums to showcase Artificial Intelligence: Your Mind & The Machine,” said Catherine Wilson Horne, Discovery Place president and CEO. “It is a wonderful opportunity to give our visitors an introduction to AI in a way that showcases what the technology means to us today and what it will mean to us in the future.”
The exhibition is free with admission to Discovery Place Science. As the Museum continues to follow all health and safety precautions related to COVID-19, advanced registration is required to visit the Museum. Tickets are on sale now and can be reserved by visiting www.discoveryplacescience.org.