Shanghai promotes artificial intelligence in cultural heritage and museums

Shanghai is accelerating the adoption of artificial intelligence in the cultural heritage and museum sectors, with a focus on cultural relic conservation and restoration, smart navigation and immersive exhibitions, it was announced at a symposium on AI applications in the city recently.

The city is driving the development of intelligent application scenarios, actively exploring innovative pathways to "bring cultural relics to life," shaping new forms of cultural experience, positioning museums as new engines of cultural transmission and innovation, and transforming AI into a "super translator" for telling both Shanghai's and China's stories to the world.

Shanghai, as an innovation pioneer, has led the way in this industry. In 2018, the Shanghai Museum unveiled the nation's first entirely data-driven digital management platform. In 2021, the Shanghai History Museum introduced the first digital twin museum system, considerably increasing digital governance capabilities.

Immersive virtual reality experiences such as "Fengqi Luoyang" and "Horizon of Khufu – an Immersive Exploration of the Great Pyramid" use AI to create digital twins of cultural relics, bringing them to life through digital storytelling and instilling new vitality in Chinese civilization via algorithmic empowerment.

At the symposium, various AI application scenarios for cultural relics and museums were officially released, along with signing ceremonies. Shanghai Museum collaborated with BesTV to develop a digital twin museum that combines AIGC (Artificial Intelligence Generated Content) and ultra-HD technologies.

Drawing on cultural heritage data sets, this effort provides more vivid displays and engaging interactions, making cultural relics available to families across the country.

The Site of the First National Congress of the Communist Party of China advanced its AI-powered red culture initiatives, unveiling plans for the "Chuguang (初光)" large model. It also signed an agreement with China Telecom to jointly develop the "Digital First CPC Congress" – a subsystem project for generative AI design services tailored to red-themed cultural innovation and communication.

The Shanghai History Museum, together with four tech-innovation enterprises, will deepen cooperation in spatial scanning, agile modeling, digital copyright protection and smart navigation. Through the joint establishment of a laboratory, the partnership will form a complete innovation chain from "research and development to application demonstration to promotion and replication."

The Shanghai cultural relics store and KPS (库帕思) have agreed to collaborate on a mobile relic corpus using their objects.

Shanghai Jiao Tong University launched the Shanghai Research Center for Cultural Heritage Architecture and artificial intelligence, combining resources from various institutes. The new center will use the Smart Humanities and Social Sciences Centre and the IRCAHC to empower disease diagnosis, risk prediction, and heritage building conservation decision-making, driving intelligent cultural heritage protection upgrades.

Several tech businesses showcased their AI-driven cultural innovation products and achievements during the enterprise showcase session.

SenseTime and Fourier robotics displayed the GR-1 robot powered by SenseNova big model.

The robot captivated visitors with its explanations about the HSBC bronze lion and Wuhua Great Ceremonial Sedan Chair at the Shanghai History Museum. Robots are optimizing smart tour-guide services and improving intelligent visitor experiences by adapting to complex museum and cultural-tourism scenarios.