Nestled between an elementary faculty 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 lots 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’s, 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 me-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 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 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 firms flip to AI instruments as a substitute.
Credit score: Rebecca Skutak
“It was like an expression of frustration in humor, so I wouldn’t get too bitter concerning the business altering so shortly and beneath my nostril and never eager to be part of the shift,” Ben-Reuven stated. “So I used to be like, I’ll simply combat again with one thing foolish that I can giggle at myself.”
He stated he additionally wished to maintain this exhibit from being too detrimental as a result of he didn’t suppose that will inform the correct 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 situated 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 business he works in, the state of affairs stays lighter than a number of the different horrors and trauma happening on this planet at this time.
“I imply, AI, by way of the artistic world, looks like such a lightweight factor in comparison with so lots of the different, like battle, issues which can be occurring on this planet and like the phobia 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 cause to get them out of his house — the fabric can also be offering one other commentary on AI.
“The impermanence of this cardboard stuff, and the power for it to break down beneath even just a bit little bit of weight, is how I really feel that AI is interacting with the artistic industries,” he stated. “Folks could make their Midjourney photographs that look actually nice on Instagram and excite 12 12 months 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 beneath 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 authorised 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 frightened about the place he’ll put any further supplies in his house as soon as the show is over.
“I simply thought it could be humorous to precise this concept of, like, a complete 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 a lot electrical energy as Switzerland makes use of in a 12 months,” Ben-Reuven stated.
The Chat Haus is at the moment on show within the entrance window of 121 Norman Avenue in Brooklyn, New York’s Greenpoint neighborhood.
