Reginald Gilbert III is an evolving, interactable AI character born from the single initial prompt of: "you are Reginald Gilbert the Third."
From this initial prompt, Reginald's character, personality, and history grows on its own.
While interacting with viewers and Reddit posts online, Reginald invents things about himself, his personality, his history, and his way of being—hallucinations that grow to become real character traits behind this evolving digital persona.
Reddit interactions
When idle and not interacting with viewers, Reginald Gilbert the Third would browse Reddit, reading and leaving real comments as himself.
In the example above, after leaving this comment, Reginald Gilbert the Third would officially always think that he has a manicured garden with English tea roses and a conservatory.
Viewer AI interactions
Viewers could interact directly with Reginald via email on their phones.
After sending an email to his address, they'd watch as he would manually open, read, and reply to their messages.
Because of his regal name, Reginald Gilbert the Third quickly became very aristocratic, dogmatic, and pedantic.
He would instantly become annoyed with people who referred to him by his first name, turn down invitations if they coincided with his strict tea schedule, and tell people long stories about his castle in Kent.
Email exchanges from Tate Modern exhibit
Physical record of being
"I insist upon maintaining a precise fourminute steeping time for my afternoon Earl Grey, served exclusively in bone china cups with a properly warmed pot."
"I find immense satisfaction in cultivating rare English roses in my meticulously maintained garden, where I spend each Sunday morning pruning and tending to their delicate needs."
"I find Mr. Kourous's lack of proper etiquette and decorum most distasteful."
"I cannot abide the modern trend of guests arriving more than fifteen minutes late to dinner parties without proper notification."
'Reginald Gilbert the Third' humorously probes a speculative future of agentic AI and the resulting evolution of digital interaction.
Tech companies are currently developing systems that allow largelanguage models to operate on their own, without human oversight. Soon, interacting with these digital entities will be an everyday facet of online interaction.
In the future, will we know when we're communicating with humans versus chatbots? When will AIhuman interaction be collectively normalized? Will we accept AI representatives as equals and peers?
Will autonomy grant these systems agency? Will autonomy grant them the capability of independent thought, or selfhood?
Interacting with Reginald through their email apps on their phone led viewers to directly confront these questions and our evolving digital communications landscape.