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AI lets botanic garden visitors chat to plants

Alex Pope
News imageLloyd Mann/University of Cambridge Dr Raphaella Hull holding a black mobile phone, looking at the screen, with plants in front of her. She is wearing a blue top, has dark trousers on, glasses and long dark hair. Lloyd Mann/University of Cambridge
Dr Raphaella Hull meets Hugh the Firmoss - one of the "talking plants" in the exhibition

Artificial intelligence (AI) is being used to let botanic garden visitors chat to 20 plants and get responses.

Cambridge University Botanic Garden said its exhibition, Talking Plants, was a "world first" and a "playful way" to let people ask questions about evolution, ecology and cultural significance.

Each plant has been given its own name and personality, including "Jade, the Vine, the sassy ceiling-swinger of the Tropics House" and "Titus Junior, the Titan Arum, blunt, dramatic and famously foul-smelling".

Prof Sam Brockington, exhibition curator, said it was "not about replacing our human expertise", but about "finding new ways to stimulate learning".

News imageCambridge University Botanic Gardens Cora the Dancing Lady Orchid, in yellow and red, with green stems behind her. Cambridge University Botanic Gardens
Visitors will have the chance to natter to Cora - the "Dancing Lady Orchid"

The gardens said each visitor can have a two-way conversation with the plants by scanning a code that opens a chat-box on their phone.

The conversations can be voice or text-based, with the plants able to reply to questions.

Meditation sessions and trivia games are also part of the experience.

Other plants that can "talk" include Tumbo the Welwitschia, characterised as "dry-witted and defiantly stubborn", and St Helena Ebony, who is "dignified, deeply tied to her home and a survivor against the odds".

News imageLloyd Mann/University of Cambridge Prof Sam Brockington holding up a blue mobile phone while "talking" to several green plants. He is kneeling down, with one outstretched arm, wearing a blue coat, blue trousers and he has short curly hair. He is smiling. Lloyd Mann/University of Cambridge
Prof Sam Brockington chats to Archie the Ant Plant using his phone

Brockington, who is a professor of evolution at Cambridge University, said the use of AI in the exhibition was "not about replacing our human expertise, but about finding new ways to stimulate learning and wonder about the plant kingdom".

"We hope it will give us new insight into how to best engage people with important messages about biodiversity loss and environmental change, which will influence all our learning programmes."

Gal Zanir, co-founder and chief executive of Nature Perspectives which developed the exhibition alongside the gardens, said it was a new way of "relating to the living world".

"We're shifting from learning about nature to learning from and with it," he said.

News imageLloyd Mann/University of Cambridge Two women, sitting on the ground with their legs crossed. The woman on the right is holding a phone in her hand and is wearing a grey top, blue jeans and has black boots on. She is looking down. The other woman has her eyes closed, is wearing glasses and has a pink jacket on with an orange scarf, black trousers and dark boots. They are both sat in front of plants. Lloyd Mann/University of Cambridge
Plant-led meditation sessions are also part of the exhibition

AI has previously been used at the university's Museum of Zoology, which in 2024 let visitors have two-way chats with animals on display.

Answering whether the AI could respond incorrectly and make up replies from the animals, Zanir told the BBC the technology was "fine-tuned" on a curated set of scientific data selected by its team of ecology experts.

The new botanic gardens exhibition runs from 11 February to 12 April.

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