What’s on Apollo’s mind?

On the grounds of the Palace of Versailles in Paris, an AI-powered feature allows visitors to chat with 20 outdoor statues throughout the famous Baroque gardens. — James Hill/The New York Times

EARLY one midsummer afternoon in the Palace of Versailles’ gardens, a pigeon landed effortlessly on a masterpiece of French outdoor sculpture: a 17th-century statue of Apollo on a chariot, pulled by four horses.

The statue, made of gilded lead, has stood in a vast fountain at Versailles in the three-plus centuries since Louis XIV was king of France – and it has now entered the digital age via a new feature on the historic site’s app: powered by the tech giant OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, an audio tool lets visitors (on or off site) converse with 20 outdoor statues in three languages.