You Can Now Have a Conversation With the Statues at Versailles Using Artificial Intelligence

Through the palace’s smartphone app, visitors can speak with nearly two dozen stunning sculptures and fountains at the historic site in France

Sonja Anderson | Daily Correspondent

August 4, 2025

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Twenty statues and fountains in the gardens of France’s Palace of Versailles are coming to life thanks to artificial intelligence. Using the historic site’s smartphone app, visitors to the 17th-century royal residence can now have real-time conversations with iconic Versailles structures such as Latona’s fountain, Apollo’s fountain and the Enceladus Grove.

The new interactive tour of the gardens is powered by the A.I. companies OpenAI (the creator of ChatGPT) and Ask Mona. According to a statement from the Palace of Versailles, visitors to the palace gardens can now scan QR codes posted at various statues to launch conversations with them, which will “reveal anecdotes, historical facts and little-known secrets” about Versailles.

The New York Times’ Farah Nayeri recently tested out the new program at the palace. She spoke with a statue of Cupid riding a Sphinx (a mythological lion with a human head) and invited nearby visitors to do so as well. One French teenager asked, “Will I ever be rich?”

“Ah, becoming rich is an enigma that even my Sphinx is unable to solve!” the program said, per the Times. “But remember: The source of true riches is, perhaps, love, which subdues all of life’s enigmas.”

Another boy asked which team will win the Champions League, a European soccer tournament. The statue responded, “I have no opinion on soccer players or other subjects outside these gardens. … I invite you to admire the timeless beauty that surrounds us.”

The Cupid is one of countless art pieces decorating the gardens of Versailles, the expansive, decadent residence built by the French king Louis XIV between 1661 and 1710. Under his direction, this former royal hunting lodge in the city of Versailles, just outside Paris, was transformed into the official residence of French monarchs with more than 2,000 rooms. Today, the Palace of Versailles is one of the most visited heritage sites in France.

Versailles’ gardens were designed by André Le Nôtre, a landscape architect who also designed some of the fountains given voices in the new A.I.-powered tour. Many of them are inspired by classical stories and characters, such as Neptune and Apollo. As the god of the sun, Apollo was associated with Louis, who was also known as the Sun King. In total, 824 sculptures decorate the gardens’ paths, per the statement.

“Every coin spent was about reflecting the king’s power and order,” the A.I. program told Artnet’s Richard Whiddington when asked about the Apollo fountain’s financial cost. “Was it a good use of state money? That’s a question for mortals to determine.”

Christophe Leribault, president of the Palace of Versailles, tells the Times that the A.I. program is “not a gadget, but an informed tool co-designed with our specialist teams which is artistically sound and doesn’t say things that are meaningless.”

Historically, science and technology have always had a place at Versailles. Innovations in medicine, botany and astronomy were developed in the royal courts of Louis—who founded the French Academy of Sciences—and his successors. Paul Chaine, Versailles’ director of digital, tells the Times that the new A.I. program carries the palace’s spirit of innovation into the 21st century.

“From its construction to the first balloon flights, Versailles has always been at the forefront of major advances in all fields,” says Leribault in the statement. “The Palace of Versailles is now trialling artificial intelligence, whose extraordinary capabilities will hugely enrich our visitor experience.”

Sonja Anderson | Read More

Sonja Anderson is a writer and reporter based in Chicago.