AI answers humans through 1974 message machine

The Telex machine at Amberley Museum was built in 1974 but has been given a modern upgrade

Historians at a museum have connected a 50-year-old telex machine to modern day artificial intelligence (AI), creating "a conversation spanning decades".

Telex was a message transfer service where text would be typed into one machine and printed out on the recipient's.

However, users of the machine at Amberley Museum, in West Sussex, will not get a response from another human, instead it will be ChatGPT answering their questions.

The museum said visitors had been testing out the new machine, which was built "thanks to the ingenuity" of volunteer David Waters.

The user asks questions which appear in black and Chat GPT's responses are printed in red

Users can type in questions and receive a printed response from ChatGPT - an AI chatbot.

A spokesperson for the museum said: "The experience begins by using a rotary dial to make the initial connection, creating an unforgettable meeting of communication technologies separated by half a century."

They said the project "perfectly captures the spirit of Amberley Museum - celebrating our technological past while engaging with the innovations of today.

"It's a conversation across decades."