Vincent van Gogh the digital human gestures with its hands as it answers a viewer's question.
At the end of a Vincent van Gogh exhibit at Musée D’Orsay, the artist himself awaits visitors, dressed in a dapper blue jacket and ready to answer their questions.
The Dutch painter, of course, died in 1890, but this digital version looks a whole lot like him, down to the ruddy beard, piercing blue eyes and partially missing left ear. And, thanks to generative AI, the digital twin knows the details of its lookalike’s life and can talk about them with curious museum-goers as part of an interactive experience titled “Bonjour Vincent.”
AI van Gogh is chatting away in Paris as part of a larger exhibit focused on the final two months of the artist’s life, a highly productive period during which he delivered more than 74 paintings and 33 drawings before shooting himself in the chest with a revolver at age 37. The exhibit will be on display through February 4 and includes a virtual reality experience that immerses participants in van Gogh’s world and work.
The question museum visitors have most often posed to AI van Gogh is why the painter killed himself, and answers vary according to the query’s wording. “I would implore this: Cling to life, for even in the bleakest of moments, there is always beauty and hope,” the AI van Gogh told The New York Times during an interview.
Other common questions include why the artist, who famously struggled with mental unrest, cut off his ear and which of his paintings he likes best, according to Jumbo Mana, the French generative-AI startup that created the van Gogh doppelganger.
“The overarching goal is to revive van Gogh through an AI that authentically echoes his unique expression, faithfully imitating his style while upholding the established truths of his life and work,” Jumbo Mana’s Fatma Chelly said over email.
The company, which specializes in bringing historical figures to life using interactive, conversational and behavioral AI, trained its van Gogh algorithm on a repository of more than 800 letters penned by the artist. Wouter van der Veen, an art historian specializing in van Gogh, collaborated with the company to help ensure the AI’s adherence to the painter’s persona and its faithfulness to the syntax and vernacular of his time.
Keeping History Alive Through Technology
“Bonjour Vincent” represents another example of how technology can animate historical figures to make their stories more engaging and memorable. Life-size talking 3D holograms, for instance, let the crucial tales of Holocaust survivors live on as their numbers dwindle. And the National World War II Museum in New Orleans will launch an interactive experience that lets visitors converse with AI versions of military veterans.
Digital van Gogh gestures in conversation.
Musée D’Orsay visitors touch a screen to begin chatting with van Gogh through a microphone. Sometimes the digital human presses a finger to its lips while appearing to ponder its replies, and it moves its hands around and somewhat awkwardly leans forward in its chair as it speaks. “Its answers will be faithful to the painter’s habits and ideas,” reads an introductory placard next to the screen, though the replies sometimes contain mistakes, the Times reports.
Jumbo Mana says it’s actively working to improve the algorithm’s accuracy by reviewing van Gogh’s responses, particularly in instances when the avatar replies with “I don’t have an answer” or generates incorrect answers. “Our focus is on enriching our database with accurate information that addresses users’ inquiries,” Chelly said.
Nope, AI Van Gogh Has Never Heard Of Forbes
In its attempt to adhere to historical accuracy, the AI refrains from addressing events or concepts van Gogh couldn’t have known about. When asked about Forbes, for example, the AI apologizes and redirects the conversation. “I’m unfamiliar with Forbes,” it says. “It wasn’t part of the world as I knew it in my time.” (Um, did the AI miss the 19th-century French edition of Forbes on newsstands?)
Meet legendary painter Vincent van Gogh, the digital version.
Jumbo Mana debuted its AI-driven van Gogh in June at Viva Technology, a Paris event for technology professionals and innovation enthusiasts. Once the exhibit at Musée D'Orsay ends, the van Gogh AI will reside through September 2024 at Château d'Auvers-sur-Oise, the 17th-century estate outside of Paris where the artist last lived. Jumbo Mana says it also plans to release the van Gogh AI program on Amazon’s Alexa smart-home device.
In getting an artificially intelligent doppelganger, van Gogh joins a growing list of contemporary figures with AI-generated duplicates. Fans can chat with K-pop star Mark Tuan’s digital twin 24/7, for example, and with a suite of Meta chatbots bearing the faces of celebrities like Snoop Dogg, Kendall Jenner and Paris Hilton.
But van Gogh and modern technology have crossed paths before. The traveling multimedia exhibit Immersive van Gogh steeps visitors in 65 million pixels of the artist’s most iconic works through digital projection, animation, light and music—from classical to original to Edith Piaf, who herself will soon be brought back to life with the help of AI.
