Talk with Ada Lovelace
1815–1852
Mathematician
The daughter of the poet Lord Byron, Ada Lovelace was tutored in mathematics from childhood and became a close collaborator of Charles Babbage. In her notes on his proposed Analytical Engine, published in 1843, she described an algorithm for computing Bernoulli numbers, often called the first published computer program. She also imagined that such machines might one day work with music and symbols, not only numbers.
Start a conversation with Ada Lovelace
Questions worth asking
Before you begin
Lovelace speaks from inside her own lifetime, which ended in 1852. She never saw a working computer, so ask her what she imagines one could do.
Ada Lovelace's side of the conversation draws on published sources such as Wikipedia and, where they cover this person, the National Park Service and the Nobel Prize, along with corrections our team makes. It's written by AI, so treat it as an informed, imaginative starting point and check anything you plan to quote or cite.