RIYADH: Picture a 12-year-old sitting in a gallery at the National Museum of Saudi Arabia, sketching on a tablet. Behind her is a prehistoric rock carving from Najran, etched into sandstone thousands of years ago. On her screen, an AI tool generates variations of a character she has drawn, refining the design in real time.
She is not in a coding boot camp or computer lab. She is in a museum — an unexpected setting for young people to learn about artificial intelligence.
The program, titled “Tac-Tech: Your Game,” held its fourth edition from July 11 to Aug. 6, bringing together 120 participants aged 12 to 14 in two cohorts of 60. Over two weeks, each cohort transformed museum artifacts into playable physical and digital games using AI tools, virtual reality and sound engineering.
The National Museum’s Creative Programs and Events Division told Arab News: “A museum is not simply a place for preserving and displaying artifacts. It is an environment for learning, inspiration and innovation.
“All of our programs are built on connecting the museum’s stories and collections to concepts, values and learning objectives through creative, interactive experiences that make the visitor an active participant in discovering knowledge, not a passive recipient of it.”
