Cover Marion Carré, co‑founder of Ask Mona, a French studio which uses artificial intelligence to create interactive experiences for cultural institutions and their audiences (Photo: Aurélie Lamachère/Leextra – Editions Fayard)
Marion Carré, co‑founder of Ask Mona, a French studio which uses artificial intelligence to create interactive experiences for cultural institutions and their audiences (Photo: Aurélie Lamachère/Leextra – Editions Fayard)
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Ask Mona co-founder Marion Carré shares how the French studio is using AI to transform the museum experience—most recently through a collaboration with OpenAI and Singapore’s Peranakan Museum
“What can AI do for art?” It is a question asked more than ever now, as AI demonstrates the ability to generate images, compose music, and mimic artistic expression in ways once thought to belong solely to human creativity.
During her presentation at the ATxSummit 2025, organised by Infocomm Media Development Authority this May, Marion Carré proposed a shift in perspective: “What can art do for AI?”
“Art can help us understand AI,” says the co-founder and CEO of Ask Mona. Her French studio uses artificial intelligence, specifically OpenAI’s large language model (LLM), to create interactive experiences for cultural institutions and their audiences. “If we want to shape AI that’s truly transparent, culturally inclusive, and open to co-creation, we need artists—not just as users of the technology, but as guides, critics and co-designers.”
Using the example of four artworks by Anna Ridler, Tom White, Stephanie Dinkins, and the duo Robbie Barrat and Ronan Barrot, which explore the intersection of artificial intelligence and emerging technologies, Carré demonstrates how artists can reveal the invisible structures of AI, expose how machines perceive the world, interrogate bias and representation, and imagine new forms of collaboration with intelligent systems.
“These artists are exploring the boundaries in order to build better AI systems,” Carré explains. “Otherwise, you end up with technology that doesn’t reflect the richness of human perspectives. It’s about how we can use AI in a way that keeps the first and final steps of the creative process in our hands. That’s how we ensure it truly serves us and preserves the diversity of content we can create, along with human creativity.”
Read more: Cultural heritage in the digital age: how Asian creatives are using AI to preserve traditions
Above Carré at the ATxSummit 2025 in Singapore this May (Photo: IMDA)
Carré at the ATxSummit 2025 in Singapore this May (Photo: IMDA)
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When Carré co-founded Ask Mona in 2017, the goal was to use AI—via chatbots—to share knowledge and help people connect with art and artworks. “For a while, we were able to create these kinds of experiences for museums,” she recalls, “but the possibilities were limited.” Today, nearly a decade later, generative AI enables museum visitors to use the Ask Mona platform, whether on-site or online, to ask questions and receive instant responses—essentially enabling a “conversation” with an artwork or artefact.
Imagine the stories it could tell, the emotions it might reveal, and how that interaction could reshape our understanding of history and creativity. This shifts the museum experience from quiet observation to meaningful dialogue, deepening our connection to culture and the broader human experience.
Ask Mona has collaborated with internationally renowned cultural institutions, including the Musée du Louvre and the Centre Pompidou in Paris, and the Colosseum in Rome. Most recently, it partnered with Singapore’s Peranakan Museum. Initiated by OpenAI—marking the AI research and deployment company’s first museum partnership in Asia—the pilot collaboration, announced on the sidelines of the ATxSummit 2025 at the OpenAI Forum, aims to explore innovative, interactive ways of connecting people with cultural heritage.
Above Carré at the ATxSummit 2025 (Photo: IMDA)
Carré at the ATxSummit 2025 (Photo: IMDA)
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“We worked with Peranakan Museum to create the knowledge database that feeds into the AI system,” Carré shares. Through the platform, users can engage directly with selected objects—from a traditional Peranakan kebaya attire to a porcelain kamcheng food storage jar—and hear their stories unfold through a multilingual, AI-powered conversation. “The goal is to gather feedback on the kinds of questions users are asking—and it’s also an interesting way for the museum to understand what topics people are most curious about,” she says. The next phase of the project involves adding more artefacts into the system, expanding language options, and eventually rolling it out on-site—where visitors can access the web app by scanning a QR code, or simply taking a photo of the artefact for visual recognition, with no downloads required.
Drawing on insights from its various museum collaborations, Carré emphasises the importance of creating a two-way conversation. “We’ve learnt how to design the experience so that we offer the first prompt to the user—creating a kind of interaction where the AI isn’t just answering questions, but also asking them.” It is like having a docent guide you through a museum tour—only this time, the experience is interactive, personalised, and always accessible, right at your fingertips.
“We’ve built our own AI system [on top of OpenAI’s LLM] to ensure the quality of the data, the accuracy of the answers, and to analyse user interactions,” Carré shares. Ask Mona ensures that all information is sourced directly from the museum’s knowledge database, eliminating the risk of inaccuracies. “Beyond that, it’s also important to be very transparent with users about the fact that they’re interacting with an AI. And while we do collect data to understand what visitors are interested in—so museums can refine and update their content—we don’t collect any personal information.”
Don’t miss: The Kebaya: Origins, regional variations, and where to shop in Singapore
Above When launched on-site at the Peranakan Museum, the Ask Mona web app is accessible by scanning a QR code to start a conversation with select objects (Photo: OpenAi)
When launched on-site at the Peranakan Museum, the Ask Mona web app is accessible by scanning a QR code to start a conversation with select objects (Photo: OpenAi)
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In a similar project with the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec in Canada—where visitors could “chat” with artworks—data showed a remarkable increase in the average time spent in front of a work, from five seconds to five minutes. “This kind of metric is meaningful for us because it reflects deeper visitor engagement,” Carré explains. A museum focus group also reported that the tool encouraged visitors to return. It’s really about making museums more attractive, engaging spaces for visitors.”
Carré is excited about the possibilities AI can offer to elevate the museum experience. “You get something more personal, more relevant to you—and that’s so important because we need people to keep going to museums and to stay engaged with shared knowledge and culture,” she says. “It’s part of a necessary transformation that museums must undergo to survive, and to continue bringing people together.”
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As Senior Editor of Tatler Singapore, Hashirin champions and refines the storytelling across platforms—curating and crafting compelling profiles, cover stories and features that spotlight visionaries shaping culture, business and impact. Driven by curiosity, she draws inspiration from the artists, changemakers and trailblazers she encounters through her work. Beyond the pages of Tatler, she is an avid supporter of local theatre and delights in seeking out art in every city she visits.
