- AI Salvador Dali is taking questions at the Dali Museum.
- AI Dali can answer questions about his work and was created using OpenAI's GPT-4.
- Using AI to recreate celebrity likenesses raises ethical questions about consent.
Salvador Dali is now just a phone call away from The Lobster.
The Dali Museum in Florida recently unveiled a copy of Dali's sculpture “Lobster Telephone,” allowing visitors to call an AI version of the famous artist.
According to a YouTube video from the museum, the robot Dali can answer people's questions about paintings and prints when they talk into the receiver.
“For many years, people have been trying to understand my work, to find meaning in this reality, to understand the dreams of historical geniuses,” AI Dali said in the video. “But who can know what is inside the fiery heart of Salvador Dali? No, they are simply impossible. They are just mortals. But now I tell you can do.”
AI Dali explains his birth using a large-scale language model and a reproduction of his voice, but also reveals that this is far beyond his comprehension.
Goodbye Silverstein & Partners, the advertising agency behind the crustacean-themed mobile phone, used information about Dali from OpenAI's GPT-4 and audio samples from archived interviews to create a persuasive I created a Dali duck. The company shared this with Business Insider.
In a video demo, actors asked questions about Dali's art (“Why do watches melt?”) and his eccentric upturned mustache. Dali has answered 400 to 500 questions a day since the museum unveiled the phone on April 11, Martin Perg Ludwigsen of Goodby Silverstein & Partners told Business Insider. Told.
What Ludwigsen discovered by analyzing Dali's answers was that in reality, visitors would ask the artist almost anything, even love advice.
“The question about love goes back to my wife's love for Gala,” Ludviksen said.
Business Insider tested the bot by asking questions about Dali's artwork. Bot speaks in a grand, flowery language, often injected with references to surrealism, dreams, life, and death. This is a subject that the real Dali explored on canvas.
Dali also revealed that he does not read the publication often.
“Business Insider, you say? I'm sipping from the cup of imagination, not from the trough of market fluctuations. When I try to understand the world, it's not the stock exchange that whispers its secrets; It’s surreal,” Dali said.
There are some limitations to its accuracy. Because of the guardrails, it tends to be more cheerful than the real Dali in certain situations, Ludvigsen said.
There is also the issue of AI illusions. This is a case where the model spits out an answer that has no basis in reality. But Ludwigsen pointed out that hallucinations could work in their favor, given that the real Dali's mind often operated outside of reality.
AI has become a popular tool for companies and fans alike to recreate the likenesses of popular celebrities, both living and dead. Some celebrities are also enthusiastically participating. Still, ethical questions arise for those who cannot consent.
Recently, attendees at South by Southwest were able to converse with an AI chatbot featuring famous actor Marilyn Monroe. Although Monroe's estate has agreed to use her likeness, it is not known whether Monroe herself wanted it used for her AI demonstration at the Texas festival.
And on Friday, artist Drake used the AI voice of famous rapper Tupac Shakur in a song dissing Kendrick Lamar.
Ludwigsen told BI that he and his team are pondering this ethical quandary and are considering it as other clients express interest in recreating their experiences with different artists. he said.
“If we were to recreate another artist in this way, in their writing, in their art, even in their foundation, whatever they left behind, that's what this artist would want us to do.” I want to be able to show evidence that I can do it,” Ludvigsen said.
As for whether Dali would approve of his likeness being used, AI Dali told BI that digitization was a “great transformation.”
And Dali scholar Elliot King told NPR that he believes the late artist might be happy to know that his voice lives on through a lobsterphone.
“He was very interested in scientific progress,” King told the magazine. “I think he would have been really tickled by people talking into this lobster-shaped phone.”