By Neal Wong

The California Academy of Sciences announced layoffs of 53 employees in late April as part of an effort to close a projected budget deficit exceeding $8 million. Some workers have continued to work, but on June 30, the layoffs will fully take effect, eliminating the 173-year-old San Francisco institution’s ability to produce its own planetarium shows or create graphics for its public floor.

“While eliminating some staff positions is painful, it is clear that these actions are necessary to reduce our expenses and eliminate our deficit,” said former Executive Director Scott Sampson in a statement prior to his resignation.

The layoffs will also mean no more original exhibits being created, fewer animals to view, fewer in-person programs and a more difficult visitor experience on the busiest days, according to Teddy Vollman, president of Cal Academy Workers United. Workers have raised alarms that artificial intelligence and outside contractors may fill some of those gaps.

Matthew Blackwell, a digital artist in the visualization studio who has worked at the museum for 17 years, described what losing his team will mean for the planetarium’s future programming.

“The viz studio as it currently exists will not exist anymore,” Blackwell said. “If you want to rent content, there’s a lot that’s not good. And then, on top of that, a lot of it is specifically astronomy focused – one thing we’ve always been proud of here is making shows that are partially or entirely about not just astronomy, but terrestrial things: ecology, earthquakes, different aspects of life on this planet.”

Blackwell said the museum plans to keep screening the shows the studio has already made, but those will eventually become dated. Blackwell pointed to a recent outside-produced show, Tiny Chef, as a preview of what the planetarium experience could look like going forward.

“As far as scientific content, as far as actual in-depth learning points, I think there’s not a lot there,” Blackwell said. “I’ve heard of people walking out of it. It felt like a little bit of a slap in the face. A very different direction, mostly without consulting us.”

Blackwell said there will be no one to advise outside producers on how to make content work in the museum’s planetarium. The technical knowledge is needed to identify what content might cause nausea and to convert material to fit.

The creative studio faces a similar erasure. T.R. Malcom oversees the in-house branding and design team’s projects and is being laid off. Malcom said the team is also losing its two in-house photographers and two commercial designers.

“There will not be any graphic designers who work on the primary design for education materials and things on the public floor,” Malcom said.

Malcom said some of that work has already been shifted to an outside creative agency, but expressed doubt that contractors could replicate what comes from a team steeped in institutional knowledge. Both Malcom and Vollman said they fear the museum is looking to A.I. to replace some of what departing workers do.

“Internally, we are actively being encouraged to use A.l. by our superiors,” Malcom said. “The outside contractors we have on the public floor like Showtime Productions, the photography booth, almost exclusively try to use A.l. on new photobooth backgrounds.”

Malcom also knows of A.I.-generated imagery currently present in exhibits and on merchandise, but refused to disclose specifics on the record.

“There is this interest in A.I. – not only just contracting out work, but also in A.I. to replace these roles,” Malcom said. “I am worried that once we are gone, there will be A.I.-generated ads. And that would just absolutely break my heart – A.I. doing what incredible, talented people currently still work doing, and want to do.”

Jeanette Peach, the Academy’s director of communications and content, said the layoffs are not part of a plan to replace people with A.I.

“Our staff members are the lifeblood of the Academy, and while reducing staff is a painful but necessary process to address our budget deficit, we value and rely on human expertise and commitment,” Peach stated.

Union members pointed to the newest exhibit, “Vivid: Immerse Your Senses,” as an example of the A.I. direction that the museum is heading in.

“Vivid is a first-of-its-kind sensory experience at the Academy, rendering six unique ecosystems in larger-than-life detail through ultra high-resolution video projections, ambient soundscapes and nature-inspired scents,” the Academy said in a press release ahead of its May 22 opening.

The exhibit currently features animal avatars with A.I.-generated speech of human-written stories, but was planned to have interactive A.I. features.

“They hired an expensive third-party consultant and they still couldn’t get it to work,” said Natalie Kramm, a union leader and fundraiser for the museum.

Vollman, who works as a presenter and guide, recalled participating in testing for the exhibit.

“It was powered by an LLM and had an A.I.-generated voice,” Vollman said. “I found the experience more or less like my experiences speaking to ChatGPT when it first came out. I have been told several times that the goal is having visitors be able to speak to the A.I. animal.”

Vollman said the union had negotiated contract language to prevent A.I. from replacing workers, and called the technology’s use at the museum a contradiction of its core purpose.

“The use of A.I. at the Academy stands in opposition to an Academy made by and for the community we serve,” Vollman said.

Kramm said previous cuts have already diminished the visitor experience.

“The live presenters for the planetarium brought warmth to the cold, expansive space,” Kramm said. “Now it’s a robotic voice that welcomes you to the Morrison Planetarium, and it glitches out all the time, and sometimes shows are canceled because of technical issues.”

For now, Malcom is hanging onto hope.

“There is a part of me that believes that I will be able to stay through union negotiations,” Malcom said. “I don’t want to leave the Academy. I do love working there, and I love my team.”

Blackwell, who was a scientist and worked in visual effects prior to his current job, did not anticipate that he would stay at the museum for nearly two decades, and will leave looking back fondly.

“This thing is really the perfect synthesis of my two previous jobs,” Blackwell said. “I’m sad to leave it behind, but I’m happy to have had the experience.”