Nestled between an elementary school and a public library in Brooklyn’s Greenpoint neighborhood sits a new kind of “luxury” coworking space.
Dubbed the Chat Haus, this space has many of the elements you’d find in a traditional coworking office: people hammering away at their computer keyboards, another person taking a phone call, someone else pausing by their computer to take a sip of coffee.
There is, however, one key difference: Chat Haus is a coworking space for AI chatbots, and everything — including the people — is made out of cardboard.
More specifically, the Chat Haus is an art exhibit by Brooklyn artist Nim Ben-Reuven. It houses a handful of cardboard robots working away at their computers through movements controlled by small motors. There is a sign that offers desk space for “only” $1,999 a month and another that labels the space as “A luxury co-working space for chatbots.”
Ben-Reuven told TechCrunch that he built the exhibit as a way to cope and bring humor to the fact that most of his work — which largely centers around graphic design and videography — is being pushed into the AI world. He added that he’s already getting denied freelance jobs as companies turn to AI tools instead.
“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 said. “So I was like, I’ll just fight back with something silly that I can laugh at myself.”
He said he also wanted to keep this exhibit from being too negative because he didn’t think that would tell the right message. He said creating art that is blatantly negative forces it into a corner and requires it to defend itself. He added giving the display a “lighter tone” also helps it drawn in viewers of all ages and with all opinions on AI.
While Ben-Reuven and I were chatting at Pan Pan Vino Vino, a cafe located across the street from the window display, numerous groups of people stopped to look at the Chat Haus. Three millennial-aged women stopped and took pictures. A group of just-out-of-school elementary-aged students stopped and asked their adult companions questions.
Ben-Reuven also thought that despite what AI is doing to the industry he works in, the situation remains lighter than some of the other horrors and trauma going on in the world today.
“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 said.
Ben-Reuven has always used cardboard in his art. He made a lifesize-replica of an airport terminal out of cardboard in grad school. In between freelance jobs over the last decade, he’s worked on building these cardboard robots, or “cardboard babies” as he calls them. So while using these cardboard robots was a natural choice for display — he joked he also needed a reason to get them out of his apartment — the material is also providing another 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 said. “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 consumers are drawn to some AI-generated art, though. He likened it to junk food and the fast-acting serotonin hit that comes from eating junk food before it gets digested quickly.
The Chat Haus is a temporary display as the building that houses it awaits permits to get approved for renovation. Ben-Reuven hopes to keep the display up until at least mid-May and has hopes to move into a larger gallery if he can. He wants to be able to add more to it — but is worried about where he’ll put any additional materials in his apartment once the display 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 said.
The Chat Haus is currently on display in the front window of 121 Norman Avenue in Brooklyn, New York’s Greenpoint neighborhood.