The virtual citizen tour guide, Marija, launched by the tourism authority in 2022 to help tourists interested in Malta through artificial intelligence has been “paused” due to AI’s rapid evolution.
Described not only as the country’s first-ever virtual citizen, but also a world first, built through a meticulous creative process, Marija was inaccessible after her launch.
Searches for the interactive AI-powered virtual assistant on the VisitMalta website, where she was meant to be found, and attempts to ‘interview’ Marija over the last year-and-a-half, proved futile, and Marija appeared to be missing in action.
The tourism authority has now told Times of Malta “it was felt prudent to temporarily pause the project until new evaluations are made”, given that AI technology was constantly evolving.
In March 2022, the MTA together with the Ministry for Tourism and Consumer Protection, finalised and unveiled the first-ever Virtual Citizen project, with the aim of integrating AI to enhance the visitor experience.
“Marija was designed to operate through knowledge feeding, which expands over time, allowing her to respond in real-time to any questions while continuously improving her understanding of the destination,” the MTA had said.
It has now cited the constant evolution of AI technology and the “huge advancement” in such a short time since the launch of the AI-powered virtual assistant, including the evolution of apps like ChatGPT, for shelving the project.
Much work was injected into the creation of Marija, who was just a month old when she was presented to the public.
Marija was intended to “bring together the infinite possibilities of AI, incorporating them with a new immersive experience, allowing everyone to access a wealth of information about Malta”.
Launched at a tourism ministry conference on the Digital Tourism Roadmap 2030, the plan was to have a mobile application accessible in multiple languages to enhance visitors’ journey at any venue.
From there, her knowledge base was to grow over time, expanding her understanding of everything in Malta; she would even have been able to throw a joke into the mix.
VisitMalta, in collaboration with Reimagine AI, had created hundreds of 2D AI-generated models that were narrowed down to a single image, which was then brought to life in 3D to have Marija look like a typical Maltese woman, with characteristics and features associated with the Mediterranean region.
The detail also went down to the language, and a specific lexicon system was custom-built to consider the pronunciation of Maltese words and the particularities of the vocabulary synonymous with a typical Maltese conversation.
Marija’s neural synthesised voice – she even spoke English with a Maltese accent – was based on the voice of a content creator, who recorded hours of dialogue. From these, an AI duplicate voice was created, able to live independently and vocalise any new information Marija needed to learn and say in the future.
But the future has been stalled, despite high expectations for the virtual being to “become an experience guaranteed to bring together art and AI to provide a holistic and exciting human experience,” according to the VisitMalta CEO.
The project was being looked at as “another opportunity through which the Maltese touristic product is being developed, by becoming more relevant to the 21st century”.
Tourism Minister Clayton Bartolo had said: “Integrating technology with Maltese tourism is the way forward in this age of acceleration.”
The project was a “great testament to Malta’s vision and implementation of a solid national digital strategy,” Reimagine.AI founder and creative director David Usher had said, adding that Marija would continue to establish Malta as a “true next-generation visitor experience destination”.
Her ‘birth’ was later described as a “soft launch”, and some finishing touches still had to be carried out.
Marija was considered the “perfect medium to tell the Maltese story and connect in a meaningful way with everyone who comes in contact with her”. But that contact has yet to be made.