- 5 hours ago
Every object has a story to tell. A perfume, a monument, a product, a place. Conversational AI makes it possible to give them a voice. By letting objects speak, brands can better connect with their consumers and gather insights that no traditional channel could capture. But the real challenge is not technology. It is ensuring that AI speaks with the brand's own voice, knowledge, and singularity, rather than flattening everything into a generic conversational mold.
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00:00Hey, hey! We're back. Are you ready for the next guest? Yes? Ready? Can we? Sure? Yes, thank you, sir.
00:10So, our next guest is Ask Mona, a French startup founded by Marion Carré and Valentin Schmit,
00:21building generative AI assistants for cultural sites and brands.
00:29The AI lets visitors have a real conversation with a piece of art and historic sites and products.
00:39More than 150 clients in the 19 countries.
00:44It is already used by the Louvre Abu Dhabi and the Met in New York.
00:51Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Sophia Baladie, Revenue Director at Ask Mona.
01:00Lisa May.
01:04Hello. Good afternoon.
01:08Hello. Nice to meet you all. Thank you for coming after that long day at URTEC.
01:15I know we are enjoying the AC now, but I do have something to tell you.
01:20So, I am Sophia Baladie and I am the Head of Revenue at Ask Mona.
01:25Maybe some of you guys know us already because we've been around for a few years.
01:29And what we do is that we are a French startup and we sell agents.
01:34So agents like ChatGPT, Claude, all of these agents, you know, but we sell them so that they can allow
01:42you, allow visitors, allow people to talk to objects.
01:46And we're going to cover that thing because we believe any object has a story to tell.
01:50So, conversational AI gives voices to inanimate objects, to machines.
01:55But the problem is, the question is most likely, what will they say?
01:59Okay. So, coming with such a name, Ask Mona.
02:04You do know that we come from Mona Lisa, the culture.
02:07So, we come from museums and we are actually museum geeks.
02:10We come from the arts and we are passionate about this.
02:13What we wanted to do at first is that, you know that feeling, you enter a museum and there are
02:20a lot of things going on.
02:21A lot of things that maybe you don't know already and you have questions.
02:23And you are just, you know, chasing for the next museum guide and be like, hey, help, can you help
02:28me, you know, something like that.
02:29But then there's nobody.
02:31And so, you have questions.
02:32And the truth is, museums have answers.
02:34They have the contents.
02:35They have a lot of things to say.
02:37But they don't have the opportunity to bring the correct contents to you.
02:41So, that's where we came.
02:43We created AI.
02:45Well, AI.
02:46We create some AI agents.
02:47And we wanted to use them to let the artwork directly talk to the museum visitor.
02:53So, you go to that place and you go to that thing you want to know more about and you
02:59just start asking questions.
03:01What's so interesting about you?
03:02Who created you?
03:04How did you land in the museum's collection?
03:06Very good question nowadays that we ask about the collection origins.
03:10And so, you know, when you let people stay, when you let them ask questions, they take time.
03:15They enjoy the ride.
03:16They ask more.
03:17They get curious.
03:18So, that is what we do at Ask Mona.
03:21You do have some images here.
03:23You might recognize some of them.
03:25One of them is in Quebec, the last one.
03:27And then there's one in Arles with an avatar.
03:29So, you can talk to a sculpture.
03:31And the next one at Versailles.
03:33We're going to look together.
03:36So, we're going to let artworks talk.
03:39Good.
03:39But do you believe that we can let them talk just with a neutral, bland voice?
03:45Let's say you are here.
03:47You are facing this splendid sculpture of the Rhône River.
03:51So, this sculpture is in the gardens of the Palace of Versailles.
03:56And what's happening is that you have it.
03:58You are in the garden, but you don't have any information.
04:00And maybe you have a question to ask.
04:02So, you're going to be able to ask that question to that sculpture naturally, just using your phone.
04:08And we created an AI that's going to be able to talk to you.
04:13But then, do you think that we will give it just a bland voice?
04:17Maybe not.
04:18It is a god.
04:20It is a river god.
04:21It's a statue that was ordered by the Palace of Versailles and the Sun King itself.
04:26So, of course, we had to do extra work to put in something that got engaging.
04:30You know what I mean?
04:31So, if you had the Rhône in front of you, what would you have asked yourself?
04:35Maybe something about the look of it or when it was created?
04:39Well, I asked something.
04:41And we're going to see what I asked.
04:44You are pretty muscular, aren't you?
04:48Indeed.
04:49My form is vigorous, carved to reflect the might of rushing torrents.
04:54Each muscle, shaped by the hands of Tubi, captures the river's relentless energy.
04:59Who's Tubi?
05:01Jean-Baptiste Tubi, a sculptor of great renown.
05:05Born in Rome, settled in Paris, married Lebrun's niece.
05:09He shaped Apollo's chariot, marine horses, and this very Rhône.
05:13His hands brought rivers to life in bronze.
05:16I don't really understand why rivers are depicted as, you know, men and women.
05:22Rivers embody nature's duality, strength and calm.
05:27The Rhône, male, impetuous.
05:29The Sône, female, serene.
05:31This contrast reflects the balance...
05:33Ooh, wait, wait, wait, wait.
05:35Isn't it a bit dated?
05:38It's a timeless language.
05:41Rivers as human forms reflect nature's essence.
05:43Okay, but, like, it's not nature's essence for a man to be strong and a woman to be serene.
05:48That's crap.
05:50Indeed, these sculptures reflect a symbolic tradition of that era.
05:54They aim to capture the river's essence.
05:57My raw power as the Rhône and the Sône's calm.
06:00Not a rule of nature, just an artistic metaphor.
06:06So you see here, I hope you could hear something, because on my side it was quite low.
06:09But what happens is that I just came around and my first question was, you are quite muscular, aren't you?
06:15Because, well, he is.
06:16And that was my first question.
06:17So you see how it looks like, and you can be very informal about it.
06:21And this is the Rhône, so the one will have a very powerful voice.
06:23Be like, okay, I'm the Rhône reaver, you know.
06:25I'm the head of those seas and whatever.
06:27And so we created with Versailles Palace something that is both reliable, accurate, actually true.
06:34You are learning things that you cannot learn if you don't go on that specific place.
06:38Even if you go on the internet, you won't have those kind of information.
06:41But we embodied it.
06:43We used it so that when you came in front of that sculpture,
06:47while looking intensely at the sculpture instead of your phone,
06:49because nothing happens on the phone.
06:50You just, you know, look at the sculpture.
06:52You also have sort of the feeling that the sculpture is actually talking to you.
06:57So we were sort of augmented objects, but, you know, objects of art.
07:01So that's not the daily object that we were working on.
07:04So then we sort, maybe try to augment something more.
07:09And sometimes you have a book, and that book, you don't really have the mean to read it
07:14because it's very long, or because in that case, it's been written ages ago
07:19by an Irish woman born in the 17th century in Ireland.
07:24And you'd feel like, you know, you cannot really relate to that person
07:28because she was born a long time ago.
07:29So maybe you'll feel like, hmm, not so interesting.
07:32So what we do is that we push that thing to you in your own terms
07:38so you can relate to what she's living.
07:41Let's hear it.
07:42Ah, my dear, my love life was not without its own quiet dramas.
07:45There was a time when Mr. Gwynn, a young man of letters,
07:48penned a passionate declaration to me.
07:50I, perhaps unwisely, showed it to my mother, which caused quite a stir.
07:53He later married another, and I confess I was relieved.
07:57Then there was my amiable cousin, Sir John,
07:59for whom I felt a strong inclination, though I knew he was quite beyond my hopes.
08:03These were the tender sentiments of my youth, you see.
08:07What do you mean he was above you?
08:10In my time, society had its strictures,
08:13and one station in life was often a matter of birth and fortune.
08:16Sir John, being a gentleman of means and standing,
08:19was considered to be of a higher position than myself.
08:22Though my heart may have felt a connection,
08:24the world around us dictated that such a match was unlikely,
08:27and I understood that.
08:28It was simply the way of things then.
08:31So, you see, she says, you know,
08:34I was pretty much in love with someone who was way above me.
08:38And you sort of relate, and I mean,
08:40surely it happened to you also,
08:42even if you're not from the 17th century.
08:44There's someone you sort of love,
08:45and then, you know, you just cannot reach them.
08:47So that's just sort of engage you into exchanging with objects.
08:51This place was for a diary,
08:53but it can be any objects, maybe.
08:55So we thought, you know,
08:56we came from a museum and we focused on something cultural,
08:59but then maybe what if any object could speak?
09:02Like a souvenir, a book, a stamp,
09:05a bottle of wine, a mascara, a coffee machine,
09:08or that IKEA thing that is just waiting for you to build it for years?
09:11Well, it could be grand, right?
09:13It could be very interesting for you to be able to just ask the thing
09:16that you have in front of you
09:17and tell them, you know, something you want to know about.
09:21Well, maybe not all objects, though.
09:23Otherwise, you just go to the beauty and the beast.
09:25So maybe not animate all of the objects,
09:27but what we focused about something that is not too far from an artwork.
09:31So what we did is we came to making souvenirs talk.
09:36So we went to museums, we've been talking to sculpture,
09:39and maybe eventually we want to bring that home.
09:41And so we created magnets.
09:43The first thing was magnets.
09:45Those magnets embody someone.
09:47So here you see Joan of Art,
09:48and you'll be able to talk to Joan of Art thanks to that magnet.
09:52So you buy it at the souvenir shop,
09:54you bring it home,
09:55and then you can keep on talking to that AI and to that person.
10:00And what's interesting is that for the museum,
10:03they gather everything that you say.
10:04So now they know what's interesting to you.
10:06They know that when you are talking to Joan of Art,
10:09you want to know more about her legacy,
10:11her passion, what happens after,
10:13you know, her, I don't know, her attitude,
10:15things like that, her personality.
10:17And all of that the museum will take,
10:19and they will learn more about what to show you
10:21when you are in the museum itself.
10:24And now that we did museum souvenirs,
10:26we just went, again, a little farer.
10:29So we found out that you actually learn more
10:32when you interact with someone.
10:33If you just read, it's okay.
10:35But if you ask questions,
10:36and you go reach for that thing that you're curious about,
10:39you will learn more.
10:40So that's how we ended up doing that Churchill stamp.
10:44So we did that with the French post office.
10:46It's a collection stamp.
10:47And apart from being a beautiful stamp,
10:49this is not on us,
10:51it is also a stamp that you can talk to
10:53so you can learn more about Winston Churchill.
10:55So that's not only you saying,
10:57ooh, that's a cool stamp,
10:58but also you learning things and knowing a bit more.
11:01We also created student books.
11:03That was way before Notebook LM,
11:05but that's something that is now very well known
11:08and very understandable, very useful.
11:11You just talk to that manual that you are using,
11:14and then you just keep on.
11:16So we kept on and kept on
11:18until we augmented a bottle of wine in a supermarket ale.
11:22So here we are pretty much out of the culture.
11:24Well, we are French.
11:25That's still cultural, okay?
11:26Wine is cultural, but not so much.
11:28So you would just go to a supermarket ale
11:30and ask it anything.
11:31That just shows that AI is interesting on all objects
11:35and lets you tell what you do,
11:37what you want to say on the object itself.
11:40So it can be useful on any product
11:42as long as there's curiosity and content.
11:45So you're going to say,
11:47yeah, any generic AI does it.
11:49No, I can just ask ChatGPT about it,
11:51but they cannot
11:52because this isn't about the technology.
11:54It's about the tone.
11:56The generic AI doesn't know your product as well as you do.
11:58It's going to say hallucinations, you know, nonsense.
12:01It flattens everything into the same molds.
12:03You lose the voice, you lose the tone,
12:05you lose the personality.
12:06And also, it isn't virtuous to you.
12:08If it was virtuous to you,
12:10you would have access to all of the data
12:11if you are a brand putting your object with an AI on it.
12:14So that's what we're doing,
12:17and I hope you enjoyed it,
12:19and I hope you'll feel confident enough
12:21to talk to those two AI
12:23so you can, you know, try them yourself.
12:25So on the left one is Versailles sculpture, the Rhone,
12:28and on the right one is Dorothy Harvest's diary.
12:31Thank you for your attention.
12:32Thank you for your attention.
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