Welcome to Chat Haus, the coworking space for AI chatbots

[ad_1] Nestled between an elementary college 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 most of the parts you’d discover in a standard coworking workplace: folks hammering away at their laptop keyboards, one other particular person taking a cellphone name, another person pausing by their laptop to take a sip of espresso.

There may be, nevertheless, one key distinction: Chat Haus is a coworking house for AI chatbots, and every part — together with the folks — is made out of cardboard.

Extra particularly, the Chat Haus is an artwork exhibit by Brooklyn artist Nim Ben-Reuven. It homes a handful of cardboard robots working away at their computer systems by actions managed by small motors. There's a signal that gives 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 informed TechCrunch that he constructed the exhibit as a solution 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 corporations flip to AI instruments as a substitute.

<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="3024" height="4032" src="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/IMG_1991-rotated.jpg?w=510" alt="" class="wp-image-2999606" style="width:307px;height:auto" srcset="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/IMG_1991-rotated.jpg 3024w, https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/IMG_1991-rotated.jpg?resize=113,150 113w, https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/IMG_1991-rotated.jpg?resize=225,300 225w, https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/IMG_1991-rotated.jpg?resize=768,1024 768w, https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/IMG_1991-rotated.jpg?resize=510,680 510w, https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/IMG_1991-rotated.jpg?resize=900,1200 900w, https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/IMG_1991-rotated.jpg?resize=960,1280 960w, https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/IMG_1991-rotated.jpg?resize=323,430 323w, https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/IMG_1991-rotated.jpg?resize=540,720 540w, https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/IMG_1991-rotated.jpg?resize=675,900 675w, https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/IMG_1991-rotated.jpg?resize=600,800 600w, https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/IMG_1991-rotated.jpg?resize=1152,1536 1152w, https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/IMG_1991-rotated.jpg?resize=1536,2048 1536w, https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/IMG_1991-rotated.jpg?resize=501,668 501w, https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/IMG_1991-rotated.jpg?resize=281,375 281w, https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/IMG_1991-rotated.jpg?resize=463,617 463w, https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/IMG_1991-rotated.jpg?resize=398,531 398w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 3024px) 100vw, 3024px"/> Credit score: REbecca Szkutak

“It was like an expression of frustration in humor, so I wouldn’t get too bitter concerning the trade altering so shortly and beneath my nostril and never eager to be part of the shift,” Ben-Reuven mentioned. “So I used to be like, I’ll simply battle again with one thing foolish that I can snigger at myself.”

He mentioned he additionally wished to maintain this exhibit from being too unfavourable as a result of he didn’t assume that may inform the fitting message. He mentioned creating artwork that's blatantly unfavourable 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 have 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 take a look at the Chat Haus. Three millennial-aged ladies stopped and took footage. 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 trade he works in, the state of affairs stays lighter than among the different horrors and trauma happening on the earth at the moment.

“I imply, AI, by way of the inventive world, looks as if such a lightweight factor in comparison with so most of the different, like battle, issues which can be occurring on the earth and like the phobia and the trauma that exists,” he mentioned.

Ben-Reuven has at all times used cardboard in his artwork. He made a lifesize-replica of an airport terminal out of cardboard in grad college. 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 alternative for show — he joked he additionally wanted a purpose to get them out of his condo — the fabric can be offering one other commentary on AI.

“The impermanence of this cardboard stuff, and the flexibility 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 inventive industries,” he mentioned. “Individuals could make their Midjourney pictures that look actually nice on Instagram and excite 12 yr olds to no finish, however with any stage 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 shoppers 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 accredited for renovation. Ben-Reuven hopes to maintain the show up till at the very least 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 fearful about the place he’ll put any extra supplies in his condo as soon as the show is over.

“I simply thought it will 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 very like electrical energy as Switzerland ruses in a yr,” Ben-Reuven mentioned.