How we used AI to show loneliness

Musti is collaborating with the Norwegian Red Cross on the animal visitation program. In this program, Musti Supports Red Cross financially, with its network of dog owners as well as its expertise to ensure that more elderly people experience social meeting points.

On the darkest day of the year in 2022, December 22, the Red Cross and Musti joined forces to show that they can brighten up the lives of those who are lonely at Christmas. And at the same time communicate the value of the animal visitation program.

To deliver this emotional message clearly, we chose to use AI technology over traditional filmmaking. By using the Dall-E 2 service from OpenAI, which generates images based on text inputs, we created a film that clearly shows how much a visit from a dog affects the well-being of those who are alone. 

Our research revealed that even Dall-E 2 understood that there was a big emotional difference between being alone on Christmas rather than being with a dog. When we had the engine feed us with pictures of men celebrating Christmas alone all of them pictured men with sad facial expressions. However, when we had Dall-E 2 feed us pictures of men celebrating Christmas alone with a dog we received men with smiling faces back. 

We created a simple montage-film displaying these images together which shows that even artificial intelligence understands that dogs can brighten up the lives of those who are alone on Christmas.