A play by the neural network "Moliere" was staged in Versailles

The Royal Opera of the Palace of Versailles hosted the premiere of a play in the style of the French playwright Moliere, which was completely written by artificial intelligence (AI), who had previously studied all the works of the classic. The footage of the performance on May 6 is published by Izvestia.

"From the 21st century to the 17th century, only instead of a time machine, a neural network created at the Sorbonne. A specially written program was commissioned to resurrect Moliere, the famous hypochondriac of the French theater. That's how Moliere 2.0 turned out, straight from the neural network," said journalist Irina Rotaru.

The play was created as part of the Moliere from the Machine project at the Moliere Theater at the Sorbonne University. The work is called "The Astrologer, or False Predictions." The plot is based on the story of a stargazing father predicting his daughter's marriage to a man she does not love.

Pierre-Marie Chauvin, Vice President of the Sorbonne University and one of the drafters of the project, said that the project stands at the junction of modernity and the 17th century.

"The premiere screening of "The Astrologer, or False Predictions" is taking place in this unique space — the Royal Opera House. In 2022, the Moliere-Sorbonne Theater staged The Imaginary Patient in the same hall. Since then, time has not stopped — on the contrary, it has accelerated serious changes," he stressed.

Chauvin added that the French playwright himself is at the center of the project. The developers thought about what would have happened if Moliere had not died in 1673.

"This work is a prototype that combines art, science and technology in a new way. What we offer you today is an experience, a journey through time. Perhaps this is a reason to think about what it means to be modern today — to be a man of his time, without becoming a hostage to it. We believe that this means taking a certain form of "untimelyness," a certain detachment from one's own era," he said.

The plot, text, music, and costume design were also developed by AI, and the play was subsequently proofread by the writers and submitted to editors for review.

"The premiere turned out to be loud and even revolutionary. If the play becomes successful and the project gets a sequel, in fact, it will mean an attempt to drive any, even high art, into the framework of codes and algorithms," the journalist concluded.

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The share of Russians who are afraid of the development of artificial intelligence (AI) and neural networks has increased to 27% by the end of 2025, compared to 15% a year earlier. As clarified on February 17, AI has been ranked first among the most disturbing areas of scientific progress for the third year in a row. At the same time, the gap with other categories has increased significantly in 2025.