It’s an interesting idea and fun to see the idea of an AI agent explored within the relatively benign realm of artistic expression.
That said, Botto still raises some ethical conundrums. Many working artists are rightly concerned about the impact AI is having on their profession, as models trained on millions of copyrighted works are used to generate endless imitations on demand.
Maybe Botto is something else entirely. Klingemann is an early adopter of AI in art, using neural networks as part of the artistic process and as a kind of performance strategy. His previous creations include a video installation featuring Ever-changing AI-generated portraits and a robot dog that Poop Reviews of Visual Artworks..
And while Botto generates expensive images from a model trained in public work, Klingermann does not see it as outright plagiarism. “Image models and LLMs are the new search engines,” he says. “To me, creativity is finding something that already exists in the possibility space, and deciding that this is interesting, while making sure it looks like it doesn’t belong to anyone.”
The images created by Botto look aesthetically pleasing, but they also feel, at least to my untrained eye, like fairly generic AI image generator offerings.
While the Botto project raises some interesting questions about what constitutes artistic agency, for now I think it only emphasizes the importance of human intelligence and inventiveness. The spark of creativity belongs not to the machine that produces an endless variety of images with crowd feedback, but to the artists who came up with the idea in the first place.
What do you think of Botto and his artwork? Is it a worthwhile artistic idea or just another way to make money from generative AI and meme coins? Send a message to hello@wired.com or leave a comment below to let me know.