The Brazilian Academy of Letters (ABL) has launched a digital version of Machado de Assis, which interacts and answers questions using artificial intelligence technology. The panel with the writer’s avatar will be used to welcome the public during guided tours of the institution’s building.
Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis was born in Rio de Janeiro in 1839 and died in 1908. He is considered by many critics, scholars, writers, and readers to be the greatest name in Brazilian literature.
The project was developed through a partnership between the institution and Euvatar Storyliving, a technology company. One of its goals is to help modernize the academy and attract a younger audience to reading.
During the launch event on Tuesday (March 5), it was announced that the avatar took more than three months to be built. The database that feeds the character uses the writer’s literary works and the studies conducted about him within the ABL as its main sources. Initially, more than one million parameters were used to create the avatar. Still, the number is constantly expanding, as the technology is capable of learning new parameters and self-reinforcing.
The president of the Brazilian Academy of Letters, journalist Merval Pereira, noted that the device incorporates the author’s literary style, personality, and physical traits. However, a more critical look may question whether the avatar is faithful to Machado’s physical appearance. The digital version presents a man with lighter, rosier skin.
Ethnic-Racial Identity
In recent years, the debate about the writer’s ethnic-racial identity, who was the grandson of freed Africans, has grown. For a group of researchers, there has been an intentional whitening of the writer’s images, who originally had black skin. For the founder of Euvatar Storyliving, Flávia Peres, the representation is faithful to the image accepted by the ABL.
“Machado de Assis opened this broad discussion about his image a long time ago. Within the academy, it was assumed that Machado was mulatto — a person of mixed African and European ancestry. And that is what we translate here. We see that he is not a white man, but he is also not a completely black man. He is mulatto, representing Brazilian cultural diversity and what was indeed assumed within the house,” said Peres.
What is intriguing is that Machado’s avatar does not position itself in this intermediate stance. When questioned about the subject by a reporter, the artificial intelligence gave the following response:
“As a black man, born of poor origins in 19th-century Rio de Janeiro, I faced challenges and prejudices over time due to my race, social class, and even due to my health condition, such as epilepsy,” the avatar replied.
He continued by saying that “If there was a whitening of my figure or interpretation of my origin and race, that may reflect the changes and challenges that society has faced over the years.”
Despite the more incisive stance on skin color at the beginning, the character places the racial issue in the background at the end of his response: “More than the representation of my origin and race at a given moment, what really matters to me is how my ideas and worldview continue to resonate and impact people today.”
Anyone who visits the ABL can ask any type of question to Machado’s avatar, whether related to the author’s life and work or random facts. However, do not expect him to take a strong stance on the most sensitive issues of the present.
“We cannot enter the mind of another person, especially someone who has passed away. So, based on all of Machado de Assis’s positions, we were able to formulate answers that do not compromise him. He will not delve into political issues, for example, or personal questions about someone from the present,” explained Flávia Peres, founder of Euvatar.
Source: the original text can be read at: https://agenciabrasil.ebc.com.br/en/geral/noticia/2024-03/brazilian-academy-letters-launches-machado-de-assis-avatar-rio