An interactive exhibit opening Wednesday at the National World War II Museum uses artificial intelligence to allow visitors to have virtual conversations with images of veterans, including Medal of Honor recipients who died in 2022.
“Voices from the Front” also features New Orleans Museum visitors hearing wartime heroes of the home front and supporters of the U.S. war effort, including wartime nurses who served in the Philippines, aircraft factory workers, and Margaret Kelly. You will be able to ask questions to the person. A dancer who performed in USO shows and became the model for Disney’s Tinker Bell after the war.
The project, which has been four years in the making, incorporates video-recorded interviews with 18 veterans of the war and relief efforts. Each person answered 1,000 questions about the war and their personal lives. Participants included Herschel Woodrow “Woody” Wilson, a Marine Corps veteran who fought on Iwo Jima, Japan, and a Medal of Honor recipient. He died in June 2022 after recording his response.
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Visitors to the new exhibit stand in front of a console and select the person they want to talk to. Then, a life-size image of that person sitting comfortably in a chair appears on the screen in front of you.
“Anyone can ask questions,” said Peter Crean, a retired Army colonel and the museum’s vice president of education. “It recognizes the elements of that question. And he uses AI to match the elements of that question to the most appropriate one out of those 1,000 answers.”
Aging veterans have long helped personalize the visiting experience at the museum, which opened in 2000 as the National D-Day Museum. Veterans often volunteered at the museum, manning a table near the entrance where visitors could talk about the war. But as veterans age and die, the practice has declined. The COVID-19 pandemic has been especially tough on the World War II generation, Crean said.
Peter Crean, vice president of education at the National World War II Museum, interacts with the statue of Japanese American World War II veteran Lawson Ichiro Sakai. The museum uses his AI technology to offer visitors virtual interviews with World War II veterans and war supporters. (AP Photo/Kevin McGill)
“The opportunities for Americans to speak with World War II veterans will become increasingly limited as that generation begins to fade into history,” he said.
Technology isn’t perfect. For example, when Mr. Crean asked veteran Bob Wolfe if he had a dog as a child, he said things like his favorite radio show or his breakfast cereal, before mentioning that Mr. Wolfe had a turtle. Extensive answers about Mr. Wolf’s childhood followed.
But AI mechanisms can learn as more questions are asked and rephrased, Crean said. He said the slight lag after a question is reduced and recorded answers are more responsive to the question.
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The “Voices From the Front” interactive station is part of the opening of the museum’s new Malcolm S. Forbes Lair Iconic Artifact Gallery, named after the infantry machine gunner who fought on the front lines of Europe. will be released on Wednesday. Malcolm S. Forbes was the son of Bertie Charles Forbes, the founder of Forbes magazine. Exhibits include his bronze star, his purple heart, and the bloody jacket he was wearing when he was injured.
Some of the 18 war-era survivors who took part in the recording were scheduled to be on hand for Wednesday night’s opening.
