It’s an intriguing idea, and it’s nice to see the idea of an AI agent explored in the relatively tame realm of artistic expression.
That said, Botto still poses some ethical conundrums. Many working artists are rightly worried about the impact of artificial intelligence on their profession, as models trained on millions of copyrighted works are used to generate endless fakes on demand.
Perhaps Botto is something completely different. Klingemann was the first to utilize artificial intelligence in art, using neural networks as part of the artistic process and a type of performance. His previous works include video installations, among others: constantly changing portraits generated by artificial intelligence and a robot dog shits criticism of works of visual art.
And while Botto generates high-priced images using a model trained in public art, Klingermann doesn’t see it as straightforward plagiarism. “Image models and LLM are the new search engines,” he says. “For me, creativity is about finding something that already exists in the space of possibilities and finding it interesting, while making sure it looks [like it] it no longer belongs to anyone.”
The images produced by Botto seem aesthetically pleasing, but they also look – at least to my untrained eye – like fairly generic AI image generator offerings.
While Botto’s project raises intriguing questions about what artistic agency is, for now I think it only highlights the importance of human intelligence and ingenuity. The spark of creativity does not belong to a machine that produces an infinite variety of images influenced by the public’s opinion, but to the artists who first came up with the idea.
What do you think about Botto and his graphics? Is this a valuable 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.