Salvador Dalí Resurrected as Interactive AI Clone 30 Years After His Death

In April on the 30th anniversary of Salvador Dalí’s death, The Dalí Museum in St Petersburg, Florida, will unveil an interactive digital version of the legendary surrealist painter as part of their new project, ‘Dalí Lives.’

The ‘ground-breaking AI experience’ will give visitors the chance to engage with the artist’s computerized clone via a series of human-sized screens installed throughout the museum. The ‘cutting-edge’ technology will create a version of Dalí’s likeness by training an AI algorithm to ‘learn’ elements of the painter’s mannerisms and expressions using filmed footage of a lookalike actor, as well as photographs, interviews and hundreds of archival materials.  

In addition to using quotes from the artist, this digital Dalí will also muse and share his observations on current events. On the ‘unique sensibility’ of the project, the executive director of the Dalí Museum, Dr. Hank Hine told Artnet News: ‘Dalí was famous for his sense of his own eternal significance. It’s almost like, if had left instructions for us, this project would have been among them.’

Hine says that due to Dalí’s own interest in media, the museum is committed to finding new ways to engage their visitors. ‘People who go to art school are taught to have a silent inquiry of a painting, to visually probe it and ask it questions about why it is the way it is,’ he commented. ‘But that’s an acquired skill, and without an entry to the works it’s much more difficult.’