Meet Ghostwriter, an AI-powered haunted typewriter that talks to you
Meet Ghostwriter, an AI-powered haunted typewriter that talks to you
Expand / Ghostwriter understands what you type and can write replies automatically using OpenAI's GPT-3.
Arvind Sanjeev / Ars Technica
On Wednesday, a designer and engineer by the name of Arvind Sanjeev revealed his process for creating Ghostwriter, a one-of-a-kind Brother typewriter that uses AI to chat with a person typing on the keyboard. The "ghost" inside the machine comes from OpenAI's GPT-3, a large language model that powers ChatGPT. The effect looks like a ghost talking through the machine.
To create Ghostwriter, Sanjeev took apart a 1990s Brother AX-325 electric typewriter and reverse-engineered the signals from its keyboard, then ran them through an Arduino, a very inexpensive microcontroller. popular with fans. The Arduino then sends signals to a Raspberry Pi which acts as a network interface to OpenAI's GPT-3 API.
When GPT-3 responds, Ghostwriter automatically and loudly types the output of the AI model to paper.
Enlarge / Examples of typed output from Ghostwriter, which comes from GPT-3.
Arvind Sanjeev
GPT-3 is a large AI language model trained on millions of books and websites that statistically predicts which word is most likely to appear after receiving a prompt, which includes the text typed by the user on the Ghostwriter keyboard. Depending on the input, GPT-3 can work as a chatbot or supplement the text you provide to it, including help with writing assignments or composing poems.
While experimenting with the machine, Sanjeev realized he needed a way to control the creative "temperature" and response length of the GPT-3, so he added two buttons and a display OLED status light just above the keyboard. Sanjeev also gave the machine a spectacular new custom gray, cream and orange paint job.
Sanjeev first teased Ghostwriter on December 1, but he's been preparing for months. "The idea for Ghostwriter came in early 2021, inspired by sci-fi writer Rob Sloan," Sanjeev wrote on Twitter, "but it was hard to make time for my full-time role at @ Lumen_world, so I slowly spent my weekends working on that."
I took apart my old typewriter and powered it with @OpenAI GPT-3.
Check out Ghostwriter, an #AI creative writing companion that lets you co-write stories on paper with #ArtificialIntelligen...
Expand / Ghostwriter understands what you type and can write replies automatically using OpenAI's GPT-3.
Arvind Sanjeev / Ars Technica
On Wednesday, a designer and engineer by the name of Arvind Sanjeev revealed his process for creating Ghostwriter, a one-of-a-kind Brother typewriter that uses AI to chat with a person typing on the keyboard. The "ghost" inside the machine comes from OpenAI's GPT-3, a large language model that powers ChatGPT. The effect looks like a ghost talking through the machine.
To create Ghostwriter, Sanjeev took apart a 1990s Brother AX-325 electric typewriter and reverse-engineered the signals from its keyboard, then ran them through an Arduino, a very inexpensive microcontroller. popular with fans. The Arduino then sends signals to a Raspberry Pi which acts as a network interface to OpenAI's GPT-3 API.
When GPT-3 responds, Ghostwriter automatically and loudly types the output of the AI model to paper.
Enlarge / Examples of typed output from Ghostwriter, which comes from GPT-3.
Arvind Sanjeev
GPT-3 is a large AI language model trained on millions of books and websites that statistically predicts which word is most likely to appear after receiving a prompt, which includes the text typed by the user on the Ghostwriter keyboard. Depending on the input, GPT-3 can work as a chatbot or supplement the text you provide to it, including help with writing assignments or composing poems.
While experimenting with the machine, Sanjeev realized he needed a way to control the creative "temperature" and response length of the GPT-3, so he added two buttons and a display OLED status light just above the keyboard. Sanjeev also gave the machine a spectacular new custom gray, cream and orange paint job.
Sanjeev first teased Ghostwriter on December 1, but he's been preparing for months. "The idea for Ghostwriter came in early 2021, inspired by sci-fi writer Rob Sloan," Sanjeev wrote on Twitter, "but it was hard to make time for my full-time role at @ Lumen_world, so I slowly spent my weekends working on that."
I took apart my old typewriter and powered it with @OpenAI GPT-3.
Check out Ghostwriter, an #AI creative writing companion that lets you co-write stories on paper with #ArtificialIntelligen...
Expand / Ghostwriter understands what you type and can write replies automatically using OpenAI's GPT-3.
Arvind Sanjeev / Ars Technica
Enlarge / Examples of typed output from Ghostwriter, which comes from GPT-3.
Arvind Sanjeev
