Nestled between an elementary faculty and a public library in Brooklyn’s Greenpoint neighborhood sits a brand new form of “luxury” coworking area.
Dubbed the Chat Haus, this area has lots of the parts you’d discover in a standard coworking workplace: individuals hammering away at their laptop keyboards, one other particular person taking a telephone name, another person pausing by their laptop to take a sip of espresso.
There may be, nevertheless, one key distinction: Chat Haus is a coworking area for AI chatbots, and all the pieces — 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 way of actions managed by small motors. There’s a signal that provides desk area for “only” $1,999 a month and one other that labels the area as “A luxury co-working space for chatbots.”
Ben-Reuven informed TechCrunch that he constructed the exhibit as a solution to cope and convey 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 firms flip to AI instruments as an alternative.
“It was like an expression of frustration in humor, so I wouldn’t get too bitter about the industry changing so quickly and under my nose and not wanting to be a part of the shift,” Ben-Reuven mentioned. “So I was like, I’ll just fight back with something silly that I can laugh at myself.”
He mentioned he additionally needed to maintain this exhibit from being too adverse as a result of he didn’t suppose that will inform the best message. He mentioned creating artwork that’s blatantly adverse 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 take a look at the Chat Haus. Three millennial-aged girls stopped and took photos. 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 scenario stays lighter than a few of the different horrors and trauma occurring on this planet right now.
“I mean, AI, in terms of the creative world, seems like such a light thing compared to so many of the other, like war, things that are happening in the world and like the terror 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 faculty. In between freelance jobs over the past decade, he’s labored on constructing these cardboard robots, or “cardboard babies” as he calls them. So whereas utilizing these cardboard robots was a pure selection for show — he joked he additionally wanted a cause to get them out of his condominium — the fabric can also be offering one other commentary on AI.
“The impermanence of this cardboard stuff, and the ability for it to collapse under even just a little bit of weight, is how I feel that AI is interacting with the creative industries,” he mentioned. “People can make their Midjourney images that look really great on Instagram and excite 12 year olds to no end, but with any level of scrutiny, it’s garbage, and I feel like you look close enough at these cardboard things, they are easily collapsible and easily will fall under 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 accredited 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 needs to have the ability to add extra to it — however is apprehensive about the place he’ll put any further supplies in his condominium as soon as the show is over.
“I just thought it would be funny to express this idea of, like, a whole bunch of kind of cute, kind of creepy, baby robots typing away because of our ChatGPT prompts in some warehouse somewhere, working non-stop taking as much like electricity as Switzerland ruses in a year,” Ben-Reuven mentioned.
The Chat Haus is presently on show within the entrance window of 121 Norman Avenue in Brooklyn, New York’s Greenpoint neighborhood.
