[The Dali Museum in Florida has again used presence-evoking technologies to explore the work and life Salvador Dali, this time making it possible (for a short time at least) for anyone to call a telephone number and have a conversation with an AI chatbot trained to replicate the Spanish surrealist who died in 1989. The short story below from DesignTAXI provides details and the original version includes a 32-second video (also on YouTube). For more on the mentioned AI trailer for the never-made film Giraffes on Horseback Salad, see coverage in Artsy and a (negative) review in ArtNet. For more on earlier presence projects by the Dali Museum, see ISPR Presence News posts from January 2016 and July 2019. –Matthew]

[Image: Credit: Goodby Silverstein & Partners]

Dalí Gets A Phone Number You Can Dial To Wish Him Happy Birthday Or Simply Chat

By Mikelle Leow
May 6, 2025

Salvador Dalí may have left us in 1989, but this week, he’s taking calls. Just in time for the surrealist’s birthday week, The Dalí Museum in St Petersburg, Florida, has launched Dial Dalí, a new interactive artificial intelligence-powered experience that lets you place a call to an eerily lifelike version of the famed artist himself.

If you’ve ever wanted to pick a brilliant mind about dreams, seafood, or the nature of time, now’s your chance. The phone line—772-ASK-DALI—is open nationwide through May 12 and offers callers the opportunity to hold a two-way conversation with an AI trained on Dalí’s writings, recorded interviews, and personal quirks. Whether you’re curious about his mustache grooming habits or just want to wish him a happy birthday, the voice on the other end is designed to sound, think, and respond like Dalí.

Powered by ElevenLabs’ voice synthesis and Twilio’s phone infrastructure, the system taps into the painter’s personality to deliver unscripted, real-time responses. Unlike earlier museum-only activations, this new iteration takes the experience across the US, putting Dalí’s voice directly in the ears—and phones—of anyone who dials in.

The project is the latest in a series of imaginative collaborations between The Dalí Museum and creative agency Goodby Silverstein & Partners (GS&P), known for its previous Dalí-inspired work like the lobster-phone-based Ask Dalí and a recreation of Giraffes on Horseback Salad, a film once deemed too “unproducible.”

The experience also draws on Dalí’s own fascination with telephones, particularly his famous Lobster Phone, a sculptural work that fused functionality with absurdity.

“Dalí’s lobster phone shows that the telephone has always been a surrealist object. Now, we’ve made it literal,” explains Jeff Goodby, co-founder of GS&P. “With Dial Dalí, anyone can connect to a voice from the past that still has something to say about the future.”

It brings the spirit of Dalí’s playful, boundary-defying work into the present day, making his eccentric worldview accessible through one of the most mundane devices of modern life.

Whether the subject is dreams, art, or absurdity, Dalí (or at least a compelling AI approximation), it seems, still has plenty to say.