A unique experience. After four years of work, the American World War II Museum located in New Orleans has unveiled its new exhibition “Voices From the Front” (“Voices from the front” in French). During their visit, visitors can interact with former soldiers and witnesses of the Second World War using artificial intelligence (AI).
Concretely, the visitor selects on a screen the person with whom he wishes to communicate from a proposed list. The chosen person then appears on the screen at full size and the discussion can start. The visitor can ask the question he wants, without selection this time. This is the novelty, because the questions and answers offered in museums are generally recorded.
The testimony of 18 war survivors
The interviewee is able to respond thanks to an AI, responsible for sorting through the information in the database. The technology uses the stories of 18 survivors of the Second World War, veteran soldiers or witnesses of the conflict who gave their account of the events. Like other technologies, AI needs work to progress and provide more accurate answers.
Also read: Second World War: the moving story of André Kerleau, one of the first soldiers to enter Buchenwald
Since its opening, the Second World War museum has been inviting former soldiers and witnesses of the war of 39-45 to come and testify. But they are getting older and fewer of them are able to come and share their experience. Hershel Williams, for example, took part in the question-and-answer game and died just afterwards, in June 2022. Winner of the Medal of Honor, he fought at Iwo Jima in Japan.
Other witnesses also include women like Grace (Janota) Brown, aeronautical factory worker, Romay (Johnson) Davis, jeep driver and Margaret Kerry. The dancer performed in shows intended to entertain the troops during the war, before becoming the model for Tinkerbell from the film Peter Pan in Disney productions.