Artificial "Authentic" Intelligence: Can AI Systems Embody and Evolve Cultural Heritage? A Case Study of "Cyber Subin" and Thai Traditional Dance

Pat Pataranutaporn, Chayapatr Archiwaranguprok, Phoomparin Mano, Piyaporn Bhongse-tong, Patricia Maes, Pichet Klunchun

Track: Paper

Keywords: Cultural heritage preservation, Computation Choreography, Human-AI collaboration, Dance technology

TL;DR: The authors developed Cyber Subin and Open Dance Lab to demonstrate how "Artificial Authentic Intelligence" can embody and evolve cultural heritage by maintaining essential principles while enabling new expressions.

Abstract: Authenticity emerges from the dynamic tension between tradition and innovation, continuity and change, preservation and evolution. We propose Artificial Authentic Intelligence (AAI)—computational systems that embody, transmit, and evolve cultural knowledge. Through Thai traditional dance, we explore how AI navigates this apparent paradox via two implementations: Cyber Subin, enabling real-time human-AI co-dancing, and Open Dance Lab, a web-based educational platform. Both systems translate Mae Bot Yai's 59 fundamental poses into six generative principles derived from choreographer Pichet Klunchun's analysis, creating rule-based AI that enables new forms of expression through human-machine collaboration. We evaluate authenticity across three dimensions: depth (embodied knowledge transfer), legitimacy (community validation), and resonance (cross-cultural communication). Our findings reveal that AI creates cultural authenticity through creative tension rather than perfect mimicry, generating new expressions that unite ancestral wisdom with algorithmic possibility.

Submission Number: 254