What would you ask your favourite author if you could travel back in time and meet them? At the 45th Sharjah International Book Fair (SIBF 2026), visitors are getting the chance to find out, thanks to an AI-powered photo booth that lets them have conversations with literary figures from the past and capture the experience in a photograph.I talked legendary writer Khalil Gibran .I had read his various works including broken wings.Developed as an interactive experience by the Sharjah Book Authority (SBA), the booth allows visitors to speak with AI recreations of celebrated writers and poets, including American novelist Edith Wharton, Egyptian poet Ahmed Shawqi and Lebanese-American writer Khalil Gibran.Participants are given four minutes with their chosen literary figure, including two minutes for a simulated phone conversation and another two minutes to pose for a photograph, which they can take home as a keepsake. The experience is free and will be available throughout the fair until November 15.Ivan, the booth’s designer, explained that the initiative was developed at SBA’s request to give readers an opportunity to connect with literary figures they have long admired.“This photobooth was initiated by the Sharjah Book Authority to allow visitors to have a phone call with their favourite authors and poets,” he said.The experience is designed to make literature more personal and interactive, allowing visitors to ask questions of AI-generated representations of writers whose works they may have known for years but could never have met.
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