Speaker: Dr Raphaella Hull

What would you ask a plant if it could talk back? In spring 2026, Cambridge University Botanic Garden launched Talking Plants, an exhibition where visitors can have conversations with 20 plants using generative AI. In this talk, Dr Raphaella Hull shares how the project was created and what the experiment reveals about how people connect with plants. Dr Raphaella Hull is Acting Head of Learning at Cambridge University Botanic Garden, where she develops teaching and public engagement programmes that connect visitors with the plant world. Before this, she completed a PhD on how plants perceive symbiotic fungi in the soil.