The Rise of the Intelligent Machine

As part of the launch of Trendwatch 2017, the American Alliance of Museums’ annual report that summarizes museum trends, we’re proud to partner with sector leaders to discuss the latest trends around artificial intelligence. Elizabeth Merritt, vice president of strategic foresight and founding director of the Center for the Future of Museums, joined Anthony Tomaino from Blackbaud’s product management team and Jeffrey Inscho from The Studio at Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh to explore how museums are experimenting with artificial intelligence and how it may shape museum practice in the future.

Today, computer systems are beginning to be able to do things we used to believe required human thought—dealing with uncertainty, learning from experience, making predictions, interpreting language and more. So you’ve likely heard of AI—technology’s ability to process, decipher and “learn” from information. While many technology companies are talking about AI, only Blackbaud is taking a comprehensive approach to intelligence that’s completely optimized for social good by combining big data, artificial intelligence, analytics and expertise to help customers build a better world.

The panelists discuss how AI can offer affordable expertise, saving money and man hours, as well as how AI can help museums manage the real, practical problem of amassing huge data sets of information about their collections. “There’s no practical way to manage, sort and mine data of this kind without AI,” said Merritt. “So our ability to make sense of what we are actually collecting may depend on these types of applications.”

Watch Blackbaud’s “The Rise of the Intelligent Machine” on demand webcast to learn answers to questions like — What can this technology do for a museum? How can it make museums and their collections more accessible and useful to the public? Could AI be trained to authenticate art? Or could AI programs answer visitor questions like “Where are the paintings that will make me smile?”