ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
The surrealist artist Salvador Dali was known for art featuring melting clocks, bizarre landscapes and dreamlike imagery. He died in 1989, but visitors at the Dali Museum in St. Petersburg, Fla., can ask him questions about his art or anything else. NPR's Chloe Veltman reports that Ask Dali uses generative AI to bring the artist back to life.
CHLOE VELTMAN, BYLINE: The question - why are the clocks in your paintings melting? - provokes a long, poetical response from Ask Dali. Here's a snippet.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
AI-GENERATED VOICE: (As Salvador Dali) My dear questioner, think not of the clocks as merely melting. Picture them as a vast dream caressing consciousness.
VELTMAN: Museum visitors just pick up the lobster-shaped receiver on a replica of Dali's famous telephone sculpture to speak with him. The museum says the artificial intelligence Dali has responded to well over 30,000 questions since the installation launched in mid-April. People ask about things like the artist's famous curling moustache...
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
AI-GENERATED VOICE: (As Salvador Dali) It is not merely facial hair, but a symbol - a whimsical whisker bridge to pass artistic geniuses.
VELTMAN: ...And the week's winning lottery numbers.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
AI-GENERATED VOICE: (As Salvador Dali) To seek the lottery numbers from the mind of Dali is to ask a cloud to rain gold. Let us instead divine the mysteries of the universe through art and imagination.
VELTMAN: Ask Dali was trained on voice samples taken from archival interviews Dali did in English over his career - also, translations of his many writings, including "Diary Of A Genius" and "The Secret Life Of Salvador Dali." Martin Pagh Ludvigsen was part of the team that created the installation.
MARTIN PAGH LUDVIGSEN: One of the most wonderful things about this experience is that Dali will never give the exact same answer to a question, even if it's phrased exactly the same as before.
VELTMAN: He says that's because of the way the technology works.
PAGH LUDVIGSEN: But we like to think it's because of his spirit and temperament.
VELTMAN: But what would Salvador Dali have thought of his AI self? Here's Dali scholar Elliott King.
ELLIOTT KING: He was so interested in scientific advancements. And I think that he would have really enjoyed the fact that people were talking into this lobster phone.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
AI-GENERATED VOICE: (As Salvador Dali) Hi. I am Salvador Dali, and you can ask me anything.
VELTMAN: Dali spoke English, along with Catalan, Spanish and French. But King says no way would the real Dali have introduced himself to people like the AI Dali does to museum-goers.
KING: That word, hi, sounds so odd coming out of his voice. He always said bonjour.
VELTMAN: King says Dali also said bonjour when saying goodbye.
Chloe Veltman, NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF ADRIAN YOUNGE SONG, "SITTIN' BY THE RADIO") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
