Chatbots have been a staple of the Internet experience for as long as I can remember. I remember playing with chatbots as a kid. I laughed at the dumb things I could get them to say, but inevitably soon grew tired of them. It was novel at the time, but I couldn't remember the context and soon became repetitive. Still, fiddling with chatbots was safe fun for kids on the dreaded World Wide Web.

As technology and the Internet evolve, chatbots and AI, rather than fading into distant memory, have been upping the ante, especially recently (open in new tab). Chatbots are being used by big companies like Microsoft to improve the Bing experience (opens in new tab), and Meta claims that Zuck is cooler than Dragon Age (opens in new tab). In a cooler project, a tinker turned a chatbot into a haunted typewriter.

According to Ars Technica (opens in new tab), this awesome project was created by Arvind Sanjeev (opens in new tab) using a Brother AX-325 typewriter and OpenAI's ChatGPT software with GPT-3 The keyboard signal was created using the OpenAI GPT-3 with ChatGPT software. Keyboard signals are sent to the Arduino using a driver that can read and write keystrokes for ghost printing.

This sends information to the Raspberry Pi, which interfaces with the GPT-3 API. The typewriter eerily types as if possessed, with the keys moving like a keyboard; Sanjeev amusingly named the creation Ghostwriter, which can be seen in a Twitter thread (open in new tab).

This physical chatbot does more than just have silly conversations. Thanks to the power of its advanced AI, it can also guess the text it is given. This could mean help finishing sentences, poems, stories, or more likely just seeing what the AI comes up with at any given time.

To give some control over this, Sanjeev has added two knobs that can be used to adjust the level of creativity in Ghostwriter. These knobs are on either side of a small LED display that responds to adjustments. But this is not about squeezing the AI out of Ghostwriter, it is about giving people the ability to create new things by choosing how they interact with Ghostwriter.

"I wanted to create a mindful interaction that would allow us to pause and think about the new creative relationship we are having with machines," Sanjeev explained in a series of tweets.

"The calm, contemplative interface of a vintage typewriter removes all digital distractions and takes us on an emotional journey through paper and ink.

Sanjeev is also an avid maker with an extensive list of tutorials on his personal website and blog (opens in new tab). If this project or idea inspires your creative impulse, it's worth a look.

Ghostwriter is another great project built around a Raspberry Pi and a very cool idea: with AI growing so fast, we are starting to see some of the great things AI can do, but when it comes to the art world, some ethical issues arise (opens in new tab). Projects like Ghostwriter remind us what AI can do when used for good.