At the ATxSummit 2025 in Singapore (March 2025), the Peranakan Museum, OpenAI, and Ask Mona introduced a new kind of cultural mediation experience. This marks OpenAI’s first cultural project in Asia, developed in partnership with Ask Mona. The system allows visitors to engage directly with museum objects using their own smartphones.

A unique collaboration between AI and Asian heritage

This partnership represents a key milestone in the intersection between artificial intelligence and heritage institutions in Asia. The project brings together Ask Mona, already in use at over 150 museums and cultural venues, OpenAI, the global leader in generative AI, and the Peranakan Museum, which preserves the rich Peranakan culture shaped by centuries of exchanges between Chinese, Malay, and European communities.

A conversational experience made simple

The experience is straightforward: a QR code placed next to the object opens a web-based interface. Visitors can ask questions in English or French, either in writing or by voice, and receive immediate answers generated by an AI system.

This AI relies exclusively on content provided by the museum (text labels, exhibition documents, curatorial materials) to deliver accurate and contextualized responses. For instance, a visitor might ask, “Why are these colors used in Peranakan ceramics?” and receive a detailed explanation of cultural influences and artisanal techniques.

In this way, the AI helps preserve and highlight ancestral knowledge and cultural practices that are sometimes underdocumented. Far from standardizing interpretation, it enables deeper exploration of local traditions and greater visibility for cultural diversity, all in a format accessible to a wide audience.

A user-friendly format, designed for autonomy

The experience requires no app, no download, and no login. It works on any smartphone with an internet connection, offering a more flexible and self-directed visitor journey.

Museum teams also benefit from a dedicated dashboard that lets them create or edit points of interest, activate language settings, and access usage analytics (types of questions asked, languages used, average session duration).

A meaningful collaboration: using AI to support local cultures

The project reflects a shared ambition: to explore practical and respectful applications of AI in the cultural sector, with tailor-made tools that align with curatorial values.

For OpenAI, this use case opens up new possibilities for collaborating with cultural institutions, beyond general consumer use.

"With Ask Mona, we brought history and cultural heritage to life through AI to celebrate Singapore’s 60th birthday"
— Nathalie Cone, Head of the OpenAI Forum, Global Affairs

For Ask Mona, this project confirms the strength and adaptability of its technology across a range of cultural contexts.

This initiative could serve as a model for future collaborations with heritage institutions across Asia, paving the way for a new generation of mediation tools tailored to local cultural identities.