Do you ever wonder what the Statue of Liberty is thinking? Or whether Michelangelo’s David cares that he’s so sexualized all the time? I’ll admit those thoughts never occurred to me until right now, but someone in Versailles decided it was time to do something about it. Now, you can chat with the statues in the gardens of Versailles … using AI.
Last month, the palace announced a new partnership with Open AI, which owns ChatGPT, to allow visitors (on or off site) to converse with the statues of Versailles’s famous gardens in three languages via the site’s app. Basically, you ask a question to a statue via the app and the statue — or an algorithm imagining what the statue might say — will talk back.
But one New York Times reporter who visited the newly chatty statues found they really only want to talk about themselves. According to the Times, when a guest asked who would win the Champions league, a Sphinx statue responded, “Oh, I must answer with the heart: I have no opinion on soccer players or other subjects outside these gardens. I invite you to admire the timeless beauty that surrounds us.” I hope that sphinx never has to go on a first date. The reporter also asked the Apollo statue what happens when a pigeon poops on him. “When pigeons show their affection on my chariot, it’s hardly a grand moment,” he responded. Okay …?
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According to France’s culture ministry, this experiment is an effort to draw in a younger audience, since the average age of a Versailles guest is 40. The new feature will apparently allow the millions of visitors who grace the garden every year to engage with the museum in a way they haven’t before — unless, you know, they’re regular users of ChatGPT.
I’m personally still okay just reading about statues until they can answer the hard-hitting questions. Like, what does Venus de Milo think about Sydney Sweeney? Now that’s a conversation I’d have.
