I tried out one of these robot docents at the National Museum of South Korea a few days ago. adventuresaroundthe.world/2024/11/2…

@rscottjones How’d you feel about it? The silent walk seemed awkward.

weird af. I saw it as a novelty to (awkwardly) film, but on the next floor of the museum, I sorta wished I had brought it along with me. It’s super overkill—basically just a portable speaker attached to a menu of mp3s—but I could see AI being useful in answering lots of follow up questions.

@rscottjones Yeah, trained specially on the museum’s exhibits, I think it could be really cool for Q&A. It’ll get there.

@rscottjones Now I realize that I just described an actual human tour guide for a museum, and I feel a little silly. But then again, people sometimes feel awkward asking other people questions, especially if it’s one they think they should already know the answer to. Coupled with the novelty of different personas and non-judgement of a robot, if it means more people can learn more from the exhibits, I think it’d be net good.

even better is just an ai docent on the museum app. You tell it what you’re most interested in seeing and learning about, plus add highlights you shouldn’t miss, and how much time you have, and it constructs the walking path for you, then explains the exhibits in more detail if you want.

@rscottjones Have it send the path and audio to your glasses, and keep tabs on what exhibits you’re looking at and we’ve got ourselves a real product here! 🤓