US President Donald Trump on Wednesday visited the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library in Medora, North Dakota as part of the White House’s celebration for the 250th anniversary of Independence on July 4.
Trump first toured the library and then gave a speech outside the 96,000-square-foot facility built with a budget of $450 million. Trump honored Roosevelt by comparing the 26th US President to himself. Trump claimed, like him, Roosevelt had a “freakin’ wild life.” He said the late President “embodied the heart and soul and fight and spirit of our country, as much as anyone who ever lived.”
The visit was formal, with nothing significant beyond the glitter of a Presidential event. But social media was particularly amused by an interaction Trump had with an AI avatar of President Roosevelt at the library.
Trump’s conversation with AI-Roosevelt goes viral
The AI-powered avatar of Theodore Roosevelt features at the library as part of the “living experience” of the 18th-century US politician’s life that the faciltiy calims to provide. It appears in a section called “Talk with TR.” A life-sized figure of the former President appears on a screen with the background resembling the White House Cabinet Room.
During his tour of the library and museum on Wednesday afternoon, Trump had an interaction with the “Talk with TR.” A video of it went viral on social media.
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In the 18-second clip of the incident shared by White House spokesperson Margo Martin, the AI-Roosevelt can be seen telling Trump, “Every day a president faces storms most people never see. Keep your nerve and remember the nation comes first; you get through. I know you know that feeling yourself.”
Trump replies, “Well, I appreciate those words. Those words are fantastic. And I just want to say it’s an honor to be with you today. We are making a little bit of a tour of some of the fantastic things you’ve done.
Here’s the video:
More About The Roosevelt AI Avatar
Forbes reported on Wednesday that the “Talk with TR” was created in collaboration with Microsoft. According to the Forbes report, Microsoft trained the model using Roosevelt’s diary entries, letters, speeches, telegrams and a host of other documents.
Michael Cullinane, a senior historian with Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library Foundation, told Forbes that the AI-model is “not perfect.” However, she said, “The avatar’s understanding of major political moments in Roosevelt’s time is accurate and well explained to visitors. The avatar even manages to capture elements of Roosevelt’s attitude.”
