You Can Now Talk to the Statues at Versailles, Thanks to A.I

The gardens of the Palace of Versailles were, in essence, an exorbitant vanity project. Over four decades, Louis XIV commissioned the era’s finest artists to create what remains the world’s largest collection of outdoor statuary largely for the purpose of glorifying himself and his court.

The project drained the state’s coffers, costing untold millions of livres, and of the nearly 600 sculptures none is more evocative of this profligacy than the Apollo Fountain. It’s a giant, graceful thing of gilded lead that sees the sun god, King Louis’s symbol, rising inexorably out of water. But it should be of no surprise that when asked if France’s 17th-century resources might have been better spent, the Apollo Fountain demurs.

“Every coin spent was about reflecting the king’s power and order and it served a purpose far beyond mere cost,” the fountain, designed by Charles Le Brun in 1668, told me. “Was it a good use of state money? That’s a question for mortals to determine.”

The retort is the product of Versailles’s newest technological venture: a collaboration with OpenAI and the culture-focused platform Ask Mona, that allows visitors to chat with 20 of the garden’s statues across three languages. The initiative runs through winter 2025.

The A.I.-powered feature is rolled into Versailles’s mobile app and leads to smoother and more expansive exchanges than those offered by the preceding generation of chatbots. Sure, the statues can spit out facts: the Latona Fountain will gladly tell you it’s a six-foot-tall, four-tiered fountain built from finest Carrara marble and inspired by Ovid’s Metamorphoses, but it’ll also gladly share an anecdote.

The Sphinx Ridden by a Cupid, for example, tells of a 17th-century nobleman falling into a flowerbed while trying to impress a mademoiselle with his dancing skills. Is it true? It’s impossible to say, but the embodied wit and charm of the cupid certainly convince. Whisper it quietly, but each of the statues has something approaching its own personality: Cupid is cheeky, Achilles proud, and the doomed wrestler Milos of Croton somber and serious.

That said, Versailles has certainly ensured its technology partners have built in firm guardrails. The statues stick to art and history, refusing to be drawn in on croissants, contemporary politics, or France’s fate in the next World Cup. It’s also a stickler for rules, insisting visitors abstain from touching or taking a plunge. “I can recommend some shaded spots,” Apollo offered.

The A.I. initiative, whose first iteration will run through winter 2025, is Versailles’s latest attempt to draw a younger, more local crowd. Though the site attracts north of eight million visitors each year, the overwhelming majority are overseas tourists. Versailles is also following its own precedent of leaning into the latest technological trends. It was an early partner with Google Arts & Culture and has already rolled out an augmented reality experience alongside Ubisoft. Moreover, visitors to the Palace today can don a virtual reality headset and explore the Sun King’s disappeared gardens.

The institution’s stewards see such technological openness as a continuation of Versailles legacy. “Scientific innovation is an integral part of the history of the Palace of Versailles,” the estate’s president, Christophe Leribault, said in a statement. “From its construction to the first balloon flights, Versailles has always been at the forefront of major advances in all fields.”

Another technological marvel of the gardens was the unprecedented hydraulic system created to water the gardens. Powered in part by a dozen massive waterwheels known as the Machine de Marly, it drew from the River Seine depriving local villagers of water, an uncanny parallel with today’s thirsty A.I. data centers. What does the Apollo Fountain think of the comparison? Basically, that it’s worth it. “In both cases, the aim is to create something enduring and valuable.”