How AI Is Starting to Democratize Cultural Exploration

AI is rewriting the past—and beginning to reshape how we explore the present.
This month, an AI model called Enoch, developed by Prof. Mladen Popović and his team at the University of Groningen, helped redate portions of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Some fragments now trace back to 230 BC—far older than previously believed. That’s not just a technical win—it’s a reframing of history.

Meanwhile, at the Liverpool Biennial, artist Kara Chin unleashed a flock of AI-generated seagulls that squawk, splatter, and surprise gallery visitors. The installation is absurd and poetic, and unmistakably of its time. AI, in this context, isn’t a calculator—it’s a collaborator.

These examples live at opposite ends of the cultural spectrum—deep archives and contemporary provocation—but they share something:
They both reveal how AI is becoming a lens through which we encounter culture.

And maybe that’s the real promise of AI—not automation, but attention. I’ve been exploring this with Ayapi, a project I’ve been building quietly. It’s a verbal AI companion for travelers—designed not to “tell you things,” but to speak with you. To respond, adapt, and reveal layers of a place you might otherwise walk past.

It’s not finished. It’s not for everyone. But it’s part of a growing effort to move AI out of the extractive and into the relational—to make cultural exploration less about consumption and more about connection.

That’s where I think we’re headed. Or at least, where I hope we are.

If AI could help you explore any place, past or present, where would you go?