The Computer History Museum recently unveiled its newest exhibit, “Chatbots Decoded: Exploring AI,” a cutting-edge display that showcases the evolution, impact and future of AI technology.
Tucked in a wing of the museum, the exhibit is just 2,000 square feet but hard to miss. Ameca, a humanoid robot, beckons for visitors to ask questions so it can share a vast repertoire of knowledge, in multiple languages, while other interactive displays tell the history of chatbots and their impact on society.
“What are chatbots, where do they come from, why does it matter, what comes next?” These are just some of the questions that Chatbot Decoded attempts to address as it guides visitors through the transformative power of generative AI.
“It’s really a continuum story,” said Kirsten Tashev, the museum’s chief curatorial and exhibitions officer. Chatbots have been around for decades, although people tend to think of them as a relatively new innovation with the rise of AI language models, like ChatGPT.
A driving force behind the exhibit is to demystify or “decode” AI technology for the public. “We’re trying to bridge the gap between makers and users,” Tashev said, explaining that people have heard a lot about chatbots but haven’t had the chance to play around with the technology, aside from prompt or text-based interactions.
The exhibit opens with a collection of artifacts that show a long history of humans projecting lifelike forms on inanimate objects. It also spotlights centuries-old “talking machines,” displaying the public’s fascination with mechanical automation.
But the exhibit really gains momentum as it picks out key innovations from the mid-1900s. It prominently features the work of Alan Turing who famously posed and tested the question, “Can machines think?” – ushering in the field of artificial intelligence as we know it today.
“The roots haven’t changed much,” Tashev said, gesturing to displays of conversational computers, like ELIZA and A.L.I.C.E. – precursors to modern-day chatbots.
Moving through the decades, the exhibit focuses on machines that talk, showing major advancements in AI technology that culminate in the present-day with large language models, like ChatGPT. Along with success stories, the exhibit displays models that fizzled out or never took off.
It also surfaces a range of debates, highlighting the positive uses of AI as well as potential misuses and manipulations. A video of a deep fake shows the power of images impersonating real people while other parts of the exhibit highlight unsettling questions, like whether AI will take away jobs or opportunities for human connectivity.
The Computer History Museum has conducted about 1,400 oral histories and has acquired hundreds of thousands of materials, with only about 1% of its entire collection on display, including the chatbot exhibit. The rest is archived in warehouses, Tashev said. But even that sliver has a lot to show about the complex role that AI plays in our lives.
The Computer History Museum, located at 1401 N. Shoreline Blvd. in Mountain View, is open Wednesday through Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. General admission is priced at $19.50 and discounts are available for seniors, students and youth. Chatbots Decoded is designed for audiences high-school aged and above.
Editor’s note: Story republished through a partnership with Embarcadero Media.
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