The nativity story tells of the birth of Jesus inside a manger in the city of Bethlehem. The term nativity scene refers to an artistic depiction of this story. The word crèche refers to the three-dimensional depiction of the nativity scene. The most important components of a crèche are Mary, Joseph, and Baby Jesus in a makeshift cradle.
In addition to those three, Shepards, the Three Magi, and some angels and animals are frequently included in the crèche. The north star is often included as well.
Crèches tend to follow the same pattern. When facing it, Mary, Joseph, and Jesus are always in the center with Joseph to the left of Baby Jesus and Mary to the right. The additional characters then surround the family with the angles being further away from the family and the Three Magi being closer.
The depiction of the scene and the amount of detail put into it varies depending on the artist. Some have an assortment of characters and scenes…
…while others like to keep it simple.
Some are not made out of the expected materials…
…while others are!
Despite the creative variations of the scene, people will recognize the scene the crèche depicts given that they are familiar with the nativity scene.
But can AI do the same? Will it recognize Bev Mitchell’s Nail Nativity as a depiction of the nativity scene? Will it recognize my attempt at a crèche?
I asked Microsoft’s AI, Bing, about Simple Gifts, Uruguay, Burlap, the first image on this page. Before I asked Bing about the picture, I cropped it so that the label it had would not show.
I did the same for Nail Nativity, cropping the image so that the label would not show up. This time however, I slightly changed the wording of my question.
Given that Bing was able to recognize a crèche following the most basic rendition of the pattern and recognize the crèche made from unusual materials, it should be able to recognize the crèche my roommate and I created.
For this crèche, my roommate and I used items and materials already available to us. We arranged all of these items to recreate the basic pattern of the nativity scene. In the center lies Baby Jesus in his makeshift cradle. To the left of him stands Joseph with his staff and to the right stands Mary with her headscarf on.
I asked Bing about our crèche three times. The first time I asked the same question I asked for Simple Gifts, Uruguay, Burlap. For the second time, I asked the same question I asked for Nail Nativity. For the third time, I asked it a more specific question.
Bing was unable to recognize our crèche as depicting the nativity scene. I asked a few people the same questions I asked Bing about the three crèches. In all of their responses, they were able to identify the nativity scene in each crèche.
In one person’s response, they pointed out that, despite our crèche being “quirky”, they could tell it was depicting a nativity scene because it was “staged similar” to one.
Based on a few suggestions made to me, I cut a brown paper bag to create the manger for our crèche and elevated our North Star and angel.
I then asked Bing the same question I asked it the third time, before my additions to our crèche.
In order for Bing to provide the correct answer of what is being depicted, I had to get very specific with my question and add more details to our crèche. The people that I asked on the other hand, knew what was going in the image without me getting specific and without the addition of the stable and elevation of the North Star and angel.
Pattern recognition of popular and cultural images when not depicted in the traditional way, appears to be something that Bing struggles to do without the guidance of the person interacting with it. Although Bing could point out the different components in the image, it lacks the ability to understand what these items arranged in this manner means. Pattern recognition, at least to this level, remains a skill that humans have the upper hand in when it comes to AI. However, one thing to point out would be that Bing was the only AI Chat that I had free access to. I’m sure that there are other AI Chats far more advanced than Bing and available for a high price that would’ve had no trouble telling me what my image was depicting.
Sources
“Crèche.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, inc., www.britannica.com/topic/creche-Christianity. Accessed 3 Dec. 2023.
Microsoft and OpenAI. “Bing Chat.” Bing, Microsoft, www.bing.com/search. Accessed 3 Dec. 2023.
“Nativity.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, inc., www.britannica.com/topic/Nativity-Christian-art. Accessed 3 Dec. 2023.
Photos of the crèches by me. All of them, except for the one I stated as my roommate’s and I, were from Come to the Creche, an art exhibit of nativity scenes during Christmas in Davidson.