@article{levine2026talkie,
  title={Introducing talkie: a 13B vintage language model from 1930},
  author={Levine, Nick and Duvenaud, David and Radford, Alec},
  year={2026},
  month={April},
  url={https://talkie-lm.com/introducing-talkie}
}

“Have you ever daydreamed about talking to someone from the past? What would you ask someone with no knowledge of the modern world? What would they ask you? While we don’t have time machines yet, we can simulate this experience by training, in Owain Evans’s phrase, ‘vintage’ language models: LMs trained only on historical text. These models are fascinating conversation partners (watch Claude prompt talkie, our 13B 1930 LM, in the widget above). But we are also excited by the possibility that the careful study of the behaviors and capabilities of vintage LMs will advance our understanding of AI in general…”