'Demystifying AI' at Oriel Science

Exploring how AI can benefit society

'Demystifying AI' exhibition at Oriel Science.

Oriel Science is proud to have been one of 15 partners that delivered Association for Science and Discovery Centres’s Demystifying AI programme, a national initiative bringing hands-on AI experiences to communities across the UK. Through interactive exhibits and activities, the programme aimed to help people understand how AI affects our everyday life and the future.

AI research brought into the community

"Sketch to Image"; Exhibit.

Since January 2026, visitors to Oriel Science have been exploring (and can still explore) how AI is used through a series of interactive exhibits. Street Scenes exhibit shows how AI can generate animated videos from still images and spoken prompts, bringing this technology closer to all of us, while, Sketch to Image exhibit, creates colourful, painting-style images from simple sketches. The Impact of Deepfakes, developed with researchers from Swansea University’s TRUE (Trust in User-generated Evidence) project, explores how artificial images and videos can affect legal cases and how researchers work to safeguard digital evidence.

"Barti Ddu"; Exhibit.

Barti Ddu, developed with Technocamps, is a bilingual AI chatbot that brings the Welsh pirate Bartholomew Roberts to life and highlights how AI systems are limited by the data they are trained on.

"At Technocamps we have found the use of the AI chatbot to be a great way of engaging people of all ages to explore AI in a controlled environment. With our Barti Ddu model on display at Oriel Science, thousands more people will be able to interact with the robot through Welsh or English and learn about an infamous Welsh individual in a more engaging way, leaving the venue with a better understanding of the capabilities and limitations of AI models and how they are changing the world around us, for better or worse."

Luke Clement, Operations Manager, Technocamps

Protein Folding Challenge; Activity.

Alongside these exhibits, at our Science Corner visitors experiment with Protein Folding Challenge, an activity kindly shared with us by Xplore! Science Discovery Centre, another partner in the Demystifying AI programme. Through this activity, curious minds of all ages are invited to discover how AI systems have helped scientists crack the puzzle of how proteins twist and fold!

By giving visitors the chance to experiment with AI tools and question how they work, Oriel Science alongside ASDC aims to make artificial intelligence more accessible and more open to discussion.

"Game-changing new technologies like AI offer huge potential to create new jobs, accelerate scientific break-throughs for our health and our planet and power economic growth. But for these technologies to be adopted responsibly and accepted for the benefit of society, it’s essential that the public can trust, understand and have important conversations about how AI might change our lives.  

It’s been hugely exciting to see how science discovery centres, like Oriel Science, have managed to engage thousands of people over the last three months the breadth and length of the UK to do just that.  I very much hope it’s just the beginning of meaningful dialogue in 2026 about AI and its impact on all our lives."

Juliet Upton, Project Manager, Demystifying AI - From Algorithms to Everyday Life

Whether you’re curious about AI, or simply keen to try something new, our Demystifying AI exhibits offer a chance to explore this powerful technology for yourself.

The Demystifying AI programme was overseen by the Association of Science and Discovery Centres and supported by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), with project development from Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC, part of UKRI).