Daniela Petrelli and Nick Dulake secure funding to study human-interaction with generative AI

Professor Daniela Petrelli (ADMRC) and Nick Dulake (Design Futures) have secured EU funding to study human-interaction with generative AI. They will work with AI researchers in Munich to develop a new interactive installation for the Deutches Museum.

Petrelli and Dulake have secured funding from the EU Humaine AU Net to explore generative AI and human creativity. Generative AI creates text, images and other media using generative models that, starting from a large set of examples given, learn patterns and structures to then generate new media with similar characteristics. Daniela and Nick will work with a team of AI researchers at Ludwig Maximilian University (LMU) in Munich (Germany) from the Human-Centred Ubiquitous Media group, led by Prof. Albrecht Schmidt. Together they will design an interactive installation to be displayed at the Deutsches Museum in Munich, the largest museum of science and technology in the world.

Visitors will interact with the generative AI to create illustrations for a children’s book. Different interaction paths will be available for visitors to use, for example describing the scene via text vs a sketch of the scene as a starting point. The research will then investigate how visitors interact with the generative AI, if they like what they collaboratively produced, and if they feel ownership.

The project starts in November 2023 with the exhibition expected to open in December.

This builds on previous work by Daniela Petrelli and Nick Dulake on meSch: Material EncounterS with digital Cultural Heritage, exploring the design of digital technology for the interaction in museums. Prof Schmidt was part of the meSch team which received 4-year EU funding with the goal of co-designing novel platforms for the creation of tangible exhibits at heritage sites.

This new work, using cutting-edge technology in a museum of science, fits with Petrelli’s personal research in understanding which mechanisms such installations trigger in terms of cognitive and emotional engagement.

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