Pride, Prejudice and Pixels: Meet Jane Austen’s House with AI Elizabeth Bennet

It is a universally recognized truth that a single person with good fortune should seek AI.

At least, that's what Jane Austen's House thinks. The museum in Hampshire, England – where the author lives and works – has teamed up with AI company Starpal and the University for the Creative Arts (UCA) to create an AI avatar of “Lizzy” based on Austen's Pride and Prejudice heroine Elizabeth Bennet.

“It's exciting to finally be able to take Elizabeth Bennet off the page and talk to her in real time,” Sophie Smith, director of games and creative technology at UCA, said in a press release.

“This technology has the potential to transform the experience of museums and artifacts as well as education,” Smith added, adding that the technology would allow museum visitors to “directly engage” with Austen's character.

Creating Lizzy

The first step in creating an AI avatar was to choose a suitable virtual character.

“There are a lot of AI avatars, but these were people from the past,” Lauren Newport-Quinn, project manager for UCA's Games and Innovation Nexus, told Decrypt. We thought it would be cool to do something with a fictional character that no one had ever been able to pick their brains before.

The team debated which character would be best, which was “someone who has a lot to say — has some strong opinions — who's very well-rounded and can give good advice,” Newport-Quinn said. “It's time we landed on Elizabeth Bennet.”

To create Liz's knowledge bank, Starpal and UCA turned to a selection of novels, manuscripts and contemporary factual information compiled with the help of Jane Austen House researchers.

“It was basically anything that was dictated by the museum director as personal knowledge,” Newport-Quinn said. Like Pride and Prejudice itself, Lizzie “studies scholarly studies of Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen's works in general, and her life”. This is supplemented with contemporary demographic and lifestyle information.

Avatar dress and hair. Meanwhile, they were designed and created by students from the Games Arts and Digital Fashion courses at UCA, drawing on fashion templates from the Regency period.

UCA MA digital fashion student Ania Haber, who created Lizzie's dress in 3D, said: “It was fun to bring the dress, accessories and embroidery to life – all inspired by historical drawings and descriptions. It showed how useful technology can be in a historical setting, allowing fans to create fictional characters.” Features allow them to engage.”

Conversations with AI models can be “the easiest way to learn for certain learning styles,” Newport-Quinn explained. “If you're not a passive visual learner, reading something — where you're not digesting the information — having a conversation with someone, can increase your level of knowledge on that topic.”

Smith asserts that AI avatars can be used as educational tools, “In addition to text-based revision guides, students can now learn about literature by speaking directly to the characters.

AI avatars

AI avatars are increasingly being used to bring fictional characters, dead celebrities and even digital twins to life. Earlier this year, AI firm Soul Machines created an avatar of Marilyn Monroe, while London-based developer Synthesia created a “personal avatar” that allows users to create digital video recordings for use in social media, marketing campaigns and social networks. Training videos.

British actress and musician FKA Twigs revealed at a US Senate hearing earlier this year that she had created such a digital twin, “not only trained in my personality, but […] “She can also use my authentic tone of voice to speak multiple languages,” helping her reach a more global fan base.

But the question of who controls the AI-generated similes has raised concerns. In October, a bipartisan group of US senators introduced the No Fakes Act, which would ban the creation of AI-generated avatars without permission.

Edited by Ryan Ozawa.