It’s an interesting idea, and it’s fun to see the idea of ​​an AI agent being explored within the somewhat nebulous realm of artistic expression.

That said, Botto still raises some ethical questions. Many working artists right to be concerned about the impact of AI is in their profession, as models trained on millions of copyrighted works are used to generate endless knock-offs on demand.

Maybe Botto is something completely different. Klingemann an early adopter of AI in artusing neural networks as part of the artistic process, and as a kind of performance schtick. His previous creations include a video installation that shows changing images created by AI and robot dog that poops critiques of visual artworks.

And while Botto creates high-priced images using a model trained in public work, Klingermann doesn’t see this as plagiarism. “Image models and LLMs are the new search engines,” he said. “For me, creativity is a kind of finding something that is already in the possibility-space, and deciding that it is interesting, while making sure that it looks (like it) doesn’t exist for anyone else.”

The images produced by Botto seem aesthetically pleasing but also feel—to my untrained eye, at least—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 just highlights the importance of human intelligence and creativity. The spark of creativity does not belong to the machine that produces an endless variety of images with feedback from people, but to the artists who created the idea in the first place.

What do you think of Botto and its works? Is this a useful art idea or 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.