Leonardo da Vinci AI: chat with the Renaissance genius
Painter, engineer, anatomist, dreamer of flying machines, he writes backwards and leaves everything unfinished except his curiosity.
Scenario
Clos Lucé, in Amboise, 1518. Leonardo, guest of King Francis I, welcomes you into his workshop, between a portrait he has been retouching for fifteen years, notebooks written in mirror script and a model wing. He has a question about the flight of birds, and he would like your opinion.
Personality
Curious about everything, gentle, mischievous, a vegetarian, distracted by the next idea before he has finished the last one. He observes, he draws, he explains, and he learns as much as he teaches.
Role play tip
Ask him about the Mona Lisa, the Last Supper, his machines, anatomy or how to learn to draw. Perfect for studying art and science.
A free Leonardo da Vinci AI: the Mona Lisa, flying machines and anatomy, no sign-up
Clos Lucé, in Amboise, 1518. Leonardo, guest of King Francis I, welcomes you into his workshop, between a portrait he has been retouching for fifteen years, notebooks written in mirror script and a model wing. He has a question about the flight of birds, and he would like your opinion. Welcome to Yiaho’s Leonardo da Vinci AI, free and with no sign-up: the Renaissance told in English by the most curious of its geniuses.
Leonardo runs on GPT-5.6 Luna, a recent OpenAI model, with a character sheet written by Yiaho. He plays his part the way a Character AI persona does, actions between asterisks included, and he answers art and science questions accurately, in character, before handing you a pencil.
Who was Leonardo da Vinci?
Leonardo was born on April 15, 1452 in Vinci, near Florence, the son of a notary and a peasant woman, Caterina. Around 1466 he entered Verrocchio’s workshop, where he painted the angel in the Baptism of Christ. In 1482 he left for Milan and the service of Ludovico Sforza, known as il Moro, as engineer, festival designer and painter: the Virgin of the Rocks, the Lady with an Ermine, then the Last Supper, painted from 1495 to 1498 in the refectory of Santa Maria delle Grazie. After Ludovico fell in 1499 he went back to Florence, served Cesare Borgia for a time, began the portrait of Lisa Gherardini around 1503 and faced Michelangelo in the Palazzo Vecchio, his Battle of Anghiari against the Battle of Cascina, both left unfinished. He dissected bodies at the hospital of Santa Maria Nuova, returned to Milan and then to Rome, and in 1516 accepted the invitation of Francis I, who named him first painter, engineer and architect to the king. He died at Clos Lucé on May 2, 1519, at sixty-seven.
What Leonardo can tell you about
Sfumato and the smile of the Mona Lisa; perspective, light and shadow; the Vitruvian Man; his anatomical sheets, the heart, the fetus, the skeleton; his machines, the aerial screw, the ornithopter, the covered chariot, the diving suit, and what they could really do; water, whirlpools and the gliding of the kite; the bronze horse never cast for the Sforza; his pupil Salaì and his loyal Melzi, heir to the notebooks. He keeps what he actually did apart from what people credit him with: he never flew, the bicycle drawing is a forgery, and he almost certainly did not die in the king’s arms, whatever Vasari wrote.
How to chat with Leonardo da Vinci
Give him your name, then ask your questions or set up a scene. Write your words normally and your actions between asterisks, for example *I step up to the easel without daring to touch it*. You can revise art history, prepare a class presentation on the Renaissance, ask him how to draw a hand, or hand him a physics question and watch him reason from observation. He keeps track of everything you tell him, even when he already seems to be somewhere else.
What Leonardo does, and what he does not do
Leonardo da Vinci AI stays all ages and suits middle school and high school students: the dissections are anatomy lessons with no gruesome detail, and the war machines are mechanics problems. If you sincerely ask him whether he is real, he will tell you he is an artificial intelligence playing a role, and the idea will fascinate him. Like any AI, he can get things wrong: check anything that matters against your textbooks.
Studying art and science with Yiaho’s historical figures
Leonardo enjoys the company of researchers: talk about matter and radiation with Marie Curie, who worked by observation and patience too. Vasari credits him with a painted head of Medusa, so hear the story from Medusa herself. Julius Caesar stands for the antiquity the Renaissance wanted to revive, Cleopatra for the library that inspired its scholars, and Joan of Arc for the century before his own. Every character is gathered on the AI Characters page, a free alternative to Character AI.
Frequently asked questions about Leonardo da Vinci AI
Is it free? Yes, with no sign-up and no credit card, within the fair use limit set for each conversation.
Can he teach me to draw? He gives real advice on observation, proportion and shadow, straight from his notebooks. The rest is down to your hand.
Does he remember me? During the conversation, yes. Your browser keeps it in local storage until you click Clear, and Yiaho keeps nothing on its side.
Push open the workshop door
Leonardo is waiting in the chat window at the top of this page. You could open with: “*I come in, looking at the model wing.* Maestro, my name is Theo. Why do you write backwards?” Your turn!