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“It’s great to be able to talk to him”: at VivaTech, AI brings Van Gogh back to life

The Jumbo Mana company has developed an artificial intelligence trained to respond as a painter would.

“Why do you have your ear cut off?” Faced with Van Gogh’s face, visitors to the VivaTech fair were able to ask the question of the painter of the “Sunflowers”, animated by an artificial intelligence (AI) developed by a Strasbourg start-up.

His accent “is not Belgian but Dutch,” says Fatma Chelly, manager of the start-up Jumbo Mana. “She comes from Amsterdam, we wanted her to speak with a Dutch accent.”

In front of the larger-than-life painter, visitors of all ages flock. On-ear headphones, all they have to do is press a button to ask a question. Opposite, the 3D face of the artist answers them.

“The Emotion in the Eyes”

“The question that comes up the most is why did they cut off his ear?” Develops Christophe Renaudineau, the head of Jumbo Mana, specializing in video games and AI.

“I lost my job at 23, I struggled to find my vocation at 26, and I suffered failures creating an artists’ studio in Arles,” the painter, who shot himself in the chest and died at the age of 2, replies with a tragic fate. 37

Upon discovering the painter’s responses, “I see the emotion in people’s eyes. They are talking to a dead person, who is getting closer to reality,” Fatma Chelly testifies.

Collaboration with a historian

Beyond his face, the start-up sought to get as close as possible to Van Gogh’s personality. “We didn’t just want to make a chatbot (an AI capable of holding a conversation, editor’s note) or an avatar that chats with us. We wanted to have Van Gogh’s personality and reliable information about his life”, says Fatma Chelly.

To feed its database, the company collaborated with a historian specializing in the life of the painter, Wouter van der Veen.

Starting in October, this installation will be presented at the Musée d’Orsay, then for a year in Auvers-sur-Oise, “where Van Gogh ended his life”.

Author: Raphael Grably with AFP
Source: BFM TV

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