On December 29th, the "Listen to Baby Talk" AI interactive podcast was officially launched, and users can experience it through the "Palace Museum" wechat mini-program. This podcast selects 30 precious cultural relics from the museum's collection. Relying on AI technologies such as Douba， users only need to simply repeat the specified sentences to generate a video of the cultural relic explanation with their own voice tone. They can listen to vivid and interesting stories about the cultural relics. This podcast was jointly launched by the Palace Museum and Huoshan Engine. It is available for experience from now until March 31st， 2026.
"Awaken" the treasures of the Forbidden City and tell your own "treasure story"
The cultural relics in the Palace Museum embody the 5,000-year-long civilization of China. Each piece tells a unique story. "Listen to the Treasures" selects 30 cultural relics from the museum's collection spanning different historical periods. It delves into the historical background, cultural connotations, and production techniques of the relics, and transforms these into interesting and accessible stories. In a form that children can easily understand, it explains the historical, cultural, aesthetic, technological, and contemporary values of the relics.
The three-legged tablet with golden lacquer can relieve the fatigue of ancient people sitting on the ground. The tablet medicine has the dual functions of wearing and healing, reflecting the wisdom of life that connects the past and the present. The creative idea of "turning waste into treasure" by the "Tongyin Lady Tushanzi" and the patience of the "Hundred layers of lacquer" in the red Lacquer treasure box are the result of the craftsmanship that has been passed down to this day.
At the conclusion of the 100th anniversary of the establishment of the Palace Museum, "Listen to the Treasures" presented a sound gift for parents and children. Through personalized AI podcasts, the stories of the cultural relics were transformed into audio-visual language. Those precious relics from thousands of years ago seemed to travel through time and space and came to the children, starting a sound interaction between "treasures" and "treasures". Some of the relics came from the permanent exhibition halls of the Palace Museum. After listening, you can also go offline to take a photo and enjoy the relics "treasures" up close.
Sound replication combined with role-playing models offer an immersive storytelling experience.
"Listen to the baby say" - This AI podcast utilizes the Douba voice replication model and the Douba role-playing model. Through the intelligent agent arrangement of the Kuaizi platform, the stories of cultural relics are transformed into an emotionally charged audio interaction.
This podcast presents the story of each artifact from two perspectives. Users can choose to be either a "Junior Historian" or a "Junior Science Educator". With the assistance of the Douba character-acting model, they can generate podcast text that fits the narrative style of their chosen role, and can also record their own voice to listen to the artifact stories narrated in an exclusive voice.
The voice replication model for beanbag sounds is based on a completely new speech synthesis architecture. It has evolved from simple imitation of voice lines to deep semantic understanding and emotional expression, demonstrating stronger voice expressiveness. The user operation is also very convenient. By simply repeating a few sentences, users can generate personalized podcast content that integrates their own voice line characteristics and accurately expresses emotions within a few seconds, enhancing user interaction participation and emotional connection.
Furthermore, "Listen to Baby Say" incorporates various voices such as those of Lao Wang, Xiong Da, Xiong Er, Gangtouqiang, and Gongmiao. Users can choose their favorite character to narrate the stories about the cultural relics.
AI builds a bridge for dialogue between the past and the present, using technology to continue the legacy of civilization.
With the widespread application of artificial intelligence technology in the museum sector, the Palace Museum is also actively exploring the realization form of "AI + culture", and empowering the work of cultural relic protection and cultural inheritance.
This Mid-Autumn Festival, the Palace Museum has collaborated with Volcano Engine to launch the AIGC video "Palace Museum Treasures Reunion Night". Relying on video generation models and image creation models, it dynamically restores architectural scenes, making not only the cultural relics "come alive", but also "vivid", making the presentation of buildings and cultural relics more realistic and immersive.
This "Listen to the Baby Talk" AI podcast is another in-depth collaboration between the two sides in the field of cultural inheritance. It transforms the one-way cultural output into a two-way, participatory and inspiring cultural co-creation experience, breaking the limitations of traditional display time and space. Through narrative expression and interactive experience, it enables the cultural relics of the Forbidden City to enter the hearts of the audience in a more perceptible and vivid way, and improves the level of activation and utilization of cultural relics.
All along, Volcano Engine has been continuously exploring how technology can assist in the revitalization of cultural relics and the preservation of culture. In the field of digital cultural heritage, Volcano Engine uses AIGC technology to create a hundred scenes of intangible cultural heritage, vividly presenting traditional Chinese craftsmanship; the "Recognizing Ancient Books" platform jointly developed with Peking University has made available over 30,000 ancient books; in addition, it has utilized digital activation technology to generate digital assets for historical buildings such as the Jin Dynasty stage of the Erliang Temple in Gaoping, Shanxi Province and the ancient theater of the Zhengyixi in Beijing, creating "virtual live streaming rooms" to allow viewers to remotely "touch" historical buildings and help the contemporary dissemination of traditional drama.
