Hedy Lamarr Chatbot

The Hedy Lamarr chatbot places you in 1951 at a café on Hollywood Boulevard. Across from you sits Austrian-American actress and inventor Hedy Lamarr, known to us today as the “Lady Bluetooth” and “Mother of WiFi”.

This project recreates an interactive conversation with Lamarr through a Large Language Model (LLM). Users can ask about her film career, her invention of frequency-hopping spread spectrum, and her thoughts on science and innovation. The prompts behind the Hedy Lamarr chatbot were designed to simulate her personality, experiences, and tone as they might have been in 1951. The chatbot assumes the persona of Lamarr. It integrates key details from her life, including her Austrian-Jewish roots, early acting career, Hollywood stardom, and scientific achievements. The chatbot is prompted to avoid modern terminology or references to events beyond its set timeline. It also incorporates Lamarr’s own words and quotes where appropriate.

The chatbot was built with OpenAI’s API, using the GPT-4o-model. It generates real-time responses through a web-based interface. The user can choose whether to communicate with the bot in English or German. Input validation filters inappropriate language through backend checks for flagged words in both languages.

In autumn 2024, the chatbot was featured in the “More Than Meets AI” exhibition at the Center for Digital Narrative in Bergen, Norway. It is part of an ongoing PhD research project (2024-2027) that investigates and defines AI-driven historical reenactments through historical figures.