Aware Systems for Smart Interactive muSeums and arT

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming the world we live in.

In the last decade, deep learning algorithms have enabled AI systems to perform tasks like speech and image recognition, matching or surpassing human capabilities.

However, AI will not be enough to deliver human-level intelligence without a sort of artificial awareness that could provide the ability to focus its computational resources and intelligently control them to interact with people in a socially competent manner.

This project streams from the EIC Pathfinder project ASTOUND (GA 101071191), which is currently developing an Integrative Approach for Awareness Engineering to establish consciousness in machines.

The requested Booster Grant will support the commercial validation of ASTOUND's new contextually aware chatbots in the tourism sector, identified as a potential initial target market.

In fact, exploiting novel contextually aware chatbots in the tourism sector could offer immediate and impactful benefits, as tourists often require real-time, context-specific information and assistance, which these advanced chatbots can effectively provide.

Additionally, the chatbots could pave the way for the future museum, a museum that could become like a thematic park in which visitors could really appreciate the value of on-site visits vs. virtual visits by, for example, generating an emotional link with the original piece of art. To explore the pathways to commercialise this breakthrough innovation, the project has set the following objectives: 1.

Conduct market analysis and product-market fit assessment to validate the commercial viability of deploying the novel contextually aware chatbot in the tourism sector; and 2. Fine-tune a demo of the AST-based chatbot using datasets specifically tailored for the tourism sector.