Nestled between an elementary faculty and a public library in Brooklyn’s Greenpoint neighborhood sits a brand new sort of “luxurious” coworking house.
Dubbed the Chat Haus, this house has lots of the parts you’d discover in a standard coworking workplace: individuals hammering away at their pc keyboards, one other individual taking a telephone name, another person pausing by their pc to take a sip of espresso.
There’s, nevertheless, one key distinction: Chat Haus is a coworking house for AI chatbots, and every part — together with the individuals — is made out of cardboard.
Extra particularly, the Chat Haus is an artwork exhibit by Brooklyn artist Nim Ben-Reuven. It homes a handful of cardboard robots working away at their computer systems by actions managed by small motors. There’s a signal that provides desk house for “solely” $1,999 a month and one other that labels the house as “A luxurious co-working house for chatbots.”
Ben-Reuven advised TechCrunch that he constructed the exhibit as a option to cope and produce humor to the truth that most of his work — which largely facilities round graphic design and videography — is being pushed into the AI world. He added that he’s already getting denied freelance jobs as corporations flip to AI instruments as a substitute.
“It was like an expression of frustration in humor, so I wouldn’t get too bitter concerning the trade altering so rapidly and underneath my nostril and never eager to be part of the shift,” Ben-Reuven stated. “So I used to be like, I’ll simply battle again with one thing foolish that I can chuckle at myself.”
He stated he additionally wished to maintain this exhibit from being too detrimental as a result of he didn’t suppose that may inform the precise message. He stated creating artwork that’s blatantly detrimental forces it right into a nook and requires it to defend itself. He added giving the show a “lighter tone” additionally helps it drawn in viewers of all ages and with all opinions on AI.
Whereas Ben-Reuven and I had been chatting at Pan Pan Vino Vino, a restaurant positioned throughout the road from the window show, quite a few teams of individuals stopped to take a look at the Chat Haus. Three millennial-aged ladies stopped and took footage. A bunch of just-out-of-school elementary-aged college students stopped and requested their grownup companions questions.
Ben-Reuven additionally thought that regardless of what AI is doing to the trade he works in, the state of affairs stays lighter than a number of the different horrors and trauma occurring on the earth right this moment.
“I imply, AI, by way of the inventive world, looks as if such a lightweight factor in comparison with so lots of the different, like conflict, issues which are taking place on the earth and like the fear and the trauma that exists,” he stated.
Ben-Reuven has all the time used cardboard in his artwork. He made a lifesize-replica of an airport terminal out of cardboard in grad faculty. In between freelance jobs over the past decade, he’s labored on constructing these cardboard robots, or “cardboard infants” as he calls them. So whereas utilizing these cardboard robots was a pure selection for show — he joked he additionally wanted a motive to get them out of his condo — the fabric can be offering one other commentary on AI.
“The impermanence of this cardboard stuff, and the power for it to break down underneath even just a bit little bit of weight, is how I really feel that AI is interacting with the inventive industries,” he stated. “Folks could make their Midjourney pictures that look actually nice on Instagram and excite 12 yr olds to no finish, however with any degree of scrutiny, it’s rubbish, and I really feel such as you look shut sufficient at these cardboard issues, they’re simply collapsible and simply will fall underneath any weight.”
He understands why shoppers are drawn to some AI-generated artwork, although. He likened it to junk meals and the fast-acting serotonin hit that comes from consuming junk meals earlier than it will get digested rapidly.
The Chat Haus is a brief show because the constructing that homes it awaits permits to get accepted for renovation. Ben-Reuven hopes to maintain the show up till no less than mid-Might and has hopes to maneuver into a bigger gallery if he can. He desires to have the ability to add extra to it — however is anxious about the place he’ll put any extra supplies in his condo as soon as the show is over.
“I simply thought it could be humorous to precise this concept of, like, a complete bunch of sort of cute, sort of creepy, child robots typing away due to our ChatGPT prompts in some warehouse someplace, working continuous taking as very similar to electrical energy as Switzerland ruses in a yr,” Ben-Reuven stated.
The Chat Haus is presently on show within the entrance window of 121 Norman Avenue in Brooklyn, New York’s Greenpoint neighborhood.
AI,coworking,ChatGPT,synthetic intelligence
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