Virtually Human Explores What it Means for AI to Act Like a Human

“Through these experiences, we aim to invite exploration, discovery, and tinkering to demystify technology and empower more people to understand digital technologies and shape how tech is used in society.”

Ari Krakowski, Director of the Center for Transforming Science & Society

When did you last interact with artificial intelligence (AI)? Maybe you asked Siri or Alexa to share today’s headlines. Or maybe you’re a fan of ChatGPT or other generative AI tools. It was probably even more recent than you think! Increasingly, people are coming into contact with AI in their daily lives, often without even realizing it. A new exhibit at The Lawrence aims to demystify the latest technology and engage visitors’ curiosity about how AI works. Virtually Human is open now!

Virtually Human gives your family the chance to explore, test, and train artificial intelligence in six paired activity stations. Each set of activities invites visitors to explore how they, as humans, tackle tasks–like determining human facial expressions, creating a step-by-step plan, or even telling jokes–and then engage with highly interactive AI tools to learn how an AI might complete similar tasks. Ultimately, you may discover that many things we take for granted about how our brains work are actually very hard to replicate in an AI.

“We especially wanted to center the ‘human’ in the story of AI technology,” said Ari Krakowski, Director of the Center for Transforming Science and Society at The Lawrence. “We’ve observed that thinking about how an AI would approach something that humans do helps people make sense of how AI works. We’ve seen so many visitors interacting not only with the different AI models but also with each other, laughing, experimenting, and connecting around the different experiences.”

Virtually Human is a collaborative project between The Lawrence and the Institute for Creative Technologies at University of Southern California with the goal of developing an exhibit exploring the basics of how AI works and cultivating curiosity to learn more. A 2021 National Science Foundation grant funded the exhibit as part of their Advancing Informal STEM Learning program. As part of the grant, researchers will assess how the exhibit improved visitors’ knowledge of AI and reduced common misconceptions about the technology.

The exhibit currently on C-level is the latest iteration, resulting from several rounds of testing and prototyping. Our first test was in 2022 as part of our outdoor Science Palooza event, when visitors used AI to change their appearance in our AI face painting activity. During our 2023 Spring Weeks, we piloted more experiences from the exhibit, including the facial expression activity. These prototype events proved invaluable for the development of the final exhibit.

“We learned a lot about how kids and families engage with our activities and with the topic of AI,” said Tim Hurt, Computational Science Education Lead at The Lawrence. “During Science Palooza, visitors had a blast with AI face painting, but weren’t so curious about how it worked. In our Spring Weeks pilot, we discovered just how critical the unplugged activities were to fostering curiosity and conversation about how the AI components of the exhibit work.”

Virtually Human is one of several ongoing projects at The Lawrence focused on artificial intelligence. One grant project is developing online and in-person learning experiences integrating AI ethics with technical skills. We’re also developing learning materials about AI for use by teachers in classrooms. These projects are a part of our efforts to transform society’s understanding of important science issues and prepare the next generation with the skills and knowledge they need to confront the many technical and ethical challenges posed by AI.

Virtually Human is only the beginning of our exploration of new technologies at The Lawrence.

“In the future, we want to develop more experiences that feature cutting-edge technologies and continue to center connections to our lived experiences and community values,” said Ari Krakowski. “Through these experiences, we aim to invite exploration, discovery, and tinkering to demystify technology and empower more people to understand digital technologies and shape how tech is used in society.”

Drop in today to start exploring artificial intelligence!