KAIST

< (From left) Dr. Yuqian Sun, Professor Chang-Hee Lee of the Department of Industrial Design, and Ali Asadipour, Director of CSRC at the Royal College of Art >

'Nüshu (女書)' is the world's only women's script, a unique writing system created autonomously by women in Hunan Province, China, starting around the 19th century. These women, excluded from Hanzi education, used it to record their lives and communicate with each other. A research team from KAIST participated in the 'AI Nüshu (女书)' project, which combines the script's significance (creation amidst oppression, female solidarity, linguistic experimentation) with modern technology, winning a prestigious international award often called the 'Academy Award of the media art world.'

KAIST announced on the 10th that the 'AI Nüshu' project, jointly conducted by Professor Chang-Hee Lee's research team from the Department of Industrial Design and Ali Asadipour, Director of the Computer Science Research Center at the Royal College of Art (RCA), was selected for the Honorary Mention in the Digital Humanity category at the 'Prix Ars Electronica 2025,' the world's highest-level media art festival.

< Installation image of 'AI Nüshu' >

The 'Prix Ars Electronica,' known as the 'Academy Award of the media art world,' is the premier international media art competition held annually in Linz, Austria. This competition, which discovers innovative works spanning the boundaries of art and science, saw 3,987 submissions from 98 countries this year, with only two works receiving the honor in the Digital Humanity category.

The award-winning work, 'AI Nüshu (女书),' is based on 'Nüshu,' the world's only women's script created by Chinese women who were excluded from literacy education to record and communicate their lives.

The KAIST research team and collaborators combined this script with Computational Linguistics to create an installation that visitors can directly experience.

The artificial intelligence within the artwork learns the communication methods of pre-modern Chinese women and generates its own new language. This is regarded as a symbol of resistance against the patriarchal order and a feminist endeavor that moves beyond Western-centric views on language.

< Example of the same sentence expressed in English, Chinese, Nüshu, and AI Nüshu >

It also received high praise for artistically presenting the possibility of machines creating new languages, going beyond the preconception that 'only humans create language.'

Dr. Yuqian Sun of the Royal College of Art expressed her feelings, saying, "Although there were many difficulties in my life and research process, I feel great reward and emotion through this award."

Professor Chang-Hee Lee of the KAIST Department of Industrial Design stated, "It is very meaningful that this contemplative art, born from the intersection of history, humanities, art, and technology, has led to such a globally prestigious award."

Detailed information about the project can be found on the official Prix Ars Electronica website (https://ars.electronica.art/prix/en/digitalhumanity/).