Ghostwriter: The AI-powered typewriter that can talk!
Arvind Sanjeev is an engineer and a designer who has a one-of-a-kind typewriter called Ghostwriter. It uses artificial intelligence to chat.
Arvind Sanjeev is an engineer and a designer, who on Wednesday revealed the process of creating his one-of-a-kind typewriter called Ghostwriter. It uses artificial intelligence to chat with the person who is typing on the keyboard. OpenAI’s GPT-3 that powers ChatGPT, a large language model. The model name involves the term ghost as the machine resembles a communicating phantom.
An electric typewriter called Brother AX-325 from the 1990s was used by Sanjeev to create Ghostwriter. He used reverse-engineering in the keyboard signals and then through Arduino fed them, which is a popular low-cost microcontroller. It lastly sends signals to a Raspberry Pi which is the network interface to OpenAI’s GPT-3 API. And when the GPT-3 responds, the Ghostwriter types onto the paper automatically with this AI model’s output noises. GPT-3 works like a chatbox. It includes assistance in writing tasks and composing poetry.
When Sanjeev was experimenting with the machine, he realised that there was a requirement to control the creative temperature and response length of GTP. So two knobs and an OLED status screen above the keyboard were added by him. He gave the machine a dramatic look with paints of gray, cream and orange custom colours. He intends to make an impactful effect in the relationship between humans and AI.
I took apart my old typewriter and powered it using @OpenAI GPT-3.
Meet: Ghostwriter, an #AI creative writing companion that lets you co-write stories on paper with #ArtificialIntelligence 👻 + 🤖. pic.twitter.com/t8rP9AW51q
— Arvind Sanjeev (@ArvindSanjeev) December 1, 2022
The announcement regarding Ghostwriter was first made on December 1 on Sanjeev’s tweet.
He also wrote “I wanted to create a mindful intervention that allows you to take a moment to breathe and reflect on the new creative relationship we are forming with machines.” He added, “The calm meditative interface of a vintage typewriter takes away all the digital distractions and takes us on an emotional journey through paper and ink.”