The Grand Rapids Public Museum is unveiling its first interactive digital experience, ab1.bot as part of its ongoing commitment to promoting digital literacy and advancing educational technology. Powered by PublicOS, the GRPM’s innovative digital learning platform, this new initiative encourages exploration, creation, and storytelling. ab1.bot allows users to design and modify their own digital artifacts through a web browser, creating interactive virtual exhibits enriched with text, imagery, 3D models, and source links.
“The Museum, at its core, is a learning institution dedicated to accessibility and knowledge to all,” said Dale Robertson, president and CEO. “This accessible platform will promote new levels of both digital and human connection safely and responsibly.”
PublicOS, the platform behind ab1.bot, is the first of its kind in the nation to earn Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act certification through PRIVO, a leading authority in children’s online privacy and consent management. This certification ensures a safe environment for young innovators to explore artificial intelligence (AI) features, such as language models and image generation.
The museum’s Digital Literacy Initiative, including the launch of ab1.bot and PublicOS, is designed to inspire a new generation of digital creators. This platform has already been piloted in the form of summer camps for young learners over the past three years, allowing campers to design digital projects and small exhibits using the GRPM’s online collections. These projects, which include immersive, Extended Reality (XR) experiences, are the modern evolution of shoebox dioramas—offering an interactive way to showcase learning.
Ab1.bot allows students to take a hands-on approach to digital production, empowering them to be more than just consumers of technology.
The platform encourages digital authorship, making creative tools accessible to all. While the focus has been on digital exhibit creation, the potential for this technology is boundless, offering opportunities for future projects in diverse fields like storytelling, history, and more.
“In our 2025 Digital Me camp, we trained a docent bot on Museum artifacts, placed them on a 3D globe,” said Josh Freeney, Senior Vice President of Digital Strategies. “Users could ask questions of the docent bot in real time to learn more about the artifacts via primary sources in the Museum’s digital collections. Our conversations together explored future possibilities with robotics and how this tech can be used safely and efficiently. These campers are really engaging with the past, present, and future through ab1.bot.”
The GRPM invites the community to explore this technology during a series of live-streamed demonstrations, led by Freeney. These demonstrations will take place online and in person at the Museum. The ab1.bot demos are scheduled for:
Thursday, August 7, at 11 a.m. (online)
Friday, August 8, at 11 a.m. (online)
Saturday, August 9, at 11 a.m. (online + in person at the Museum)
Saturday’s demonstration coincides with the Museum’s Summer STEAM Day, part of its Summer Saturday Programming. Families can explore science, technology, engineering, arts, and math through pop-up exhibits and hands-on activities, including a robotics demonstration by the That One Team and solar telescope experiments with Planetarium staff.
For those interested in the livestream, visit grpm.org/digital. To learn more about the Museum’s hours, admission fees, and other upcoming events, visit grpm.org.
