By Professor Esther Eidinow, Chair in Ancient History, School of Humanities and Dr Chris Bevan, Lecturer in the School of Computer Science
Professor Esther Eidinow and Dr Chris Bevan introduce us to the AI in Antiquity project which uses cutting-edge technology to bring the world of ancient Greece to life. In doing so, the project aims to deepen our understanding of the ancient world and explore the teaching and learning potential of AI technology in classrooms. The project received an AHRC Impact Acceleration Account award and runs until January 2026.
The AI in Antiquity (AiA) project is building a prototype AI-augmented interactive experience that allows students to converse with ancient Greek men and women who are waiting to consult the god Zeus at the Oracle of Dodona. Students get to meet the characters and chat with them, as you can see from these recorded interactions:
In these clips, you can see Lysanias, who is an Athenian visiting Dodona to ask his question at the oracle. Here you can see how annoyed he is that he has to wait in line; he is talking to Xanthias, an attendant of the sanctuary:
While the characters wait, however, they do get to share their stories and talk about other topics which feature on the OCR A-level curriculum for Classical Civilisation.
As this suggests, the AiA project is intended to support teachers of Classical Civilisation and Ancient History. It builds on a previous project, the Virtual Reality Oracle (VRO) project, in which students enter a VR imagining of the ancient sanctuary of Zeus at Dodona and meet other pilgrims and witness an oracular consultation, before themselves consulting the god. The experience of visiting Dodona is on the OCR A-level curriculum for Classical Civilisation.
The VRO offers a powerful context for learning about the ancient world by creating strong and engaging narratives. It indicated that narrative and a sense of presence seem to play a key role in the ways in which students engage with this ancient historical context and can help them to gain a richer understanding of historical experience. In the VRO, however, while the interactions between characters are authentic, they are also limited: the user cannot talk to the characters. In contrast, the AiA project extends that interaction, drawing on conversational learning paradigms that recognise the role of dialogue in learning and its power for pedagogy.
To develop these ideas, we are using Charisma.ai’s proprietary platform and working in partnership with teachers and students at Reigate College, as well as teachers who attend the Classical Association’s teacher training workshops.
The AiA project is a first step in exploring how AI might meet three interconnected educational needs. First, we want to support and enhance learning about the ancient world, by energising and enthusing students, and enabling student engagement and dialogue not only with peers and teachers, but also with figures from antiquity. Secondly, we want to empower and enrich teaching and learning experiences. Through both engagement with the design process and effective classroom use of AI, the project aims to offer novel educational approaches that position Classics at the cutting edge for future teaching needs. And, finally, we hope to develop deeper understanding of AI-powered interaction in online environments. In the gaming world, AI is the next step in the ongoing search for player interactivity in videogames. The AiA project aims to respond to this need by exploring the role and nature of interaction in VR—and it aims to understand how this may benefit the educational context and be used productively in classrooms.
These are long-term ambitions, but as we develop this prototype and take it to students, we can see how cutting-edge technology can be employed effectively in the classroom to enhance the teaching of ancient culture and to support student engagement. We hope that this will be an initial step in developing technologies that not only support teachers and students, but also strengthen the position of Classics and the Humanities, extend the conversational learning model, and benefit the VR/AI industry through the effective development, and eventual scalability, of this dialogical model.
The AI in Antiquity (AI) project is led by Professor Esther Eidinow, Department of Classics and Ancient History, and Dr Chris Bevan, School of Computer Science, in collaboration with Charisma.ai, Reigate College and the Classical Association. To find out more about the AI in Antiquity and VR Oracle projects, please contact esther.eidinow@bristol.ac.uk.
