Nestled between an elementary college and a public library in Brooklyn’s Greenpoint neighborhood sits a brand new type of “luxurious” coworking house.
Dubbed the Chat Haus, this house has most of the components you’d discover in a conventional coworking workplace: folks hammering away at their pc keyboards, one other individual taking a cellphone name, another person pausing by their pc to take a sip of espresso.
There may be, nonetheless, one key distinction: Chat Haus is a coworking house for AI chatbots, and every thing — together with the folks — 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 via actions managed by small motors. There’s a signal that gives 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 strategy 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 an alternative.
“It was like an expression of frustration in humor, so I wouldn’t get too bitter concerning the trade altering so shortly and underneath my nostril and never eager to be part of the shift,” Ben-Reuven mentioned. “So I used to be like, I’ll simply struggle again with one thing foolish that I can chortle at myself.”
He mentioned he additionally wished to maintain this exhibit from being too detrimental as a result of he didn’t assume that may inform the fitting message. He mentioned 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 have 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 have a look at the Chat Haus. Three millennial-aged ladies stopped and took photos. A gaggle 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 few of the different horrors and trauma happening on the earth right now.
“I imply, AI, by way of the artistic world, looks as if such a light-weight factor in comparison with so most of the different, like struggle, issues which can be occurring on the earth and like the fear and the trauma that exists,” he mentioned.
Ben-Reuven has at all times used cardboard in his artwork. He made a lifesize-replica of an airport terminal out of cardboard in grad college. 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 alternative for show — he joked he additionally wanted a purpose to get them out of his condo — the fabric can also be offering one other commentary on AI.
“The impermanence of this cardboard stuff, and the flexibility 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 artistic industries,” he mentioned. “Individuals 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 customers 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 shortly.
The Chat Haus is a short lived show because the constructing that homes it awaits permits to get authorized for renovation. Ben-Reuven hopes to maintain the show up till a minimum of mid-Could 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 fearful about the place he’ll put any extra supplies in his condo as soon as the show is over.
“I simply thought it will be humorous to precise this concept of, like, an entire bunch of type of cute, type of creepy, child robots typing away due to our ChatGPT prompts in some warehouse someplace, working continuous taking as very like electrical energy as Switzerland ruses in a yr,” Ben-Reuven mentioned.
The Chat Haus is at present on show within the entrance window of 121 Norman Avenue in Brooklyn, New York’s Greenpoint neighborhood.