USAWA is an interactive dialogue system that invites participants to engage directly with histories of slavery, memory, and identity through guided conversation.
Rather than presenting history as fixed or complete, USAWA creates space for inquiry. Participants encounter AI-driven historical voices shaped by research and testimony, designed not to provide definitive answers, but to support reflection, questioning, and dialogue.
At its core, USAWA explores a critical question:
What does it mean for history to be mediated by artificial intelligence?
In museum and classroom settings, the system functions as a “teacher-in-the-loop” experience—where human facilitation remains central. The AI does not replace historical authority but operates within carefully designed boundaries, encouraging participants to think critically about both the content of history and the systems through which it is delivered.
By engaging with USAWA, visitors and students are invited to consider:
whose voices are represented in historical narratives
how memory is constructed and preserved
what is gained—and what is at risk—when technology becomes a medium for storytelling
USAWA is part of a broader effort to explore how interactive technologies can open new forms of engagement with difficult histories, while maintaining ethical responsibility, contextual awareness, and space for human interpretation.
