Talking Plants at Cambridge University Botanic Garden

Talking Plants invites you to take part in a live experiment exploring how artificial intelligence can help us connect more deeply with the plant kingdom. By scanning QR codes positioned throughout the Glasshouses, you’ll be able to talk to 20 remarkable plants, each represented by a generative AI chatbot.

Ask questions, follow your curiosity and discover more about each plant’s habitat, life cycle, ecological role and cultural significance. Every conversation is unique, shaped by what you choose to ask and how you choose to engage.

A shared experiment
This exhibition is both a visitor experience and a live experiment. Talking Plants will help generate insight into how people perceive and respond to plants in our collection, and how digital tools might support deeper understanding and care for biodiversity in the future. Using information curated by Botanic Garden staff, the chatbot is an exciting tool to explore an additional way for visitors to ask questions at their own pace.

We are the first botanic garden to use this technology in this way, building on pioneering AI work across the University and opening new ways to understand how people connect with plants.