Explore how ChatGPT can answer humans through decades old messaging machine

With a constant urge to explore something new, the Amberly Museum considered a remarkable fusion of vintage engineering and modern Artificial Intelligence, where the historians unveiled a unique interactive exhibit linking a 1974’s telex machine to ChatGPT.

According to the Sussex World, a few historians at Amberly Museum, West Sussex, had connected a 50-year-old message transferring a Telex machine to modern-day Artificial Intelligence (AI) app, creating a “conversation spanning a decade.”

Telex was a machine-to-machine transfer service where text would be typed into a machine and printed out on the recipient’s device.

However, users of this machine at the museum will not get any response from another human; it will be ChatGPT answering their questions.

Moreover, museum's management is greatly thankful to the ingenuity of one of the volunteers, Mr. David Waters, as visitors can now type into the 50-year-old teleprinter and get responses from ChatGPT because of his experiment.

The questions will appear in classic black type, while the AI-generated answers will be in vivid red color.

The experience began by using a rotary dial to make the initial connections creating an unforgettable meeting of communication technologies separated by almost half a century.

Museum’s Marketing manager, Mr. Joe Meacher claims, “This project perfectly captures the spirit of the Amberly Museum-celebrating our technological past while engaging with the innovations of today.”

“It’s a conversation across decades,” Joe added.

Furthermore, visitors had a chance to experience this extraordinary setup at Communication Day on Sunday, August 17, 2025.

What is a Telex machine?

A Telex machine was used as an international telecommunication system that allowed text-based messages to be sent and received by teleprinter over telephone lines.

The term "telex" may refer to the network, services, the device, or a message sent using a telex machine. 

In a telex machine, messages are converted into signals which are transmitted either by radio signals or by electricity and printed out by a machine in another place.

The telex machine emerged in 1930’s and became a major tool for text messaging between businesses in the post World-War II era.

A two-way teletypewriter service channeled through a public telecommunication system for direct communication between subscribers at remote locations.

It was later replaced when the fax machine gained popularity in the 1980s.