As AI-generated art continues to evolve, the rise of Botto, a decentralized semi-autonomous artistic agent, is redefining the boundaries of creativity and artistic expression.
The Rise of Botto: A Decentralized AI Artist with a Personality
Botto, the decentralized semi-autonomous artistic agent, has been making waves in the art world since its creation in 2021 by Mario Klingemann, Simon Hudson, and Ziv Epstein. With a market value exceeding $4 million, Botto’s artwork has fetched millions from sales at exhibitions like Sotheby’s in New York.
The Technology Behind Botto
Botto contains an AI image generator similar to Dall-E or Midjourney, but its output is shaped by a “taste model” that selects the most pleasing images generated by a prompt. This taste model is tuned to reflect the preferences of a community of Botto enthusiasts who vote on the images Botto produces and posts online.
Adding a Personality
Klingemann and Hudson are planning to add a modified version of Mistral‘s largest open-source large language model and a knowledge base that will allow Botto to converse about its artwork. This addition is expected to give Botto a personality and interests, which will be further fine-tuned through interactions with the Botto community.
The Future of Artistic Expression
As AI improves, its creators may give it fewer guardrails to test its emerging personality. This raises interesting questions about what constitutes artistic agency and whether AI-generated art can be considered truly original. While some see Botto as a worthwhile artistic idea, others worry that it may just be another way to make money from generative AI and meme coins.
The Ethics of AI in Art
Many working artists are concerned about the impact AI is having on their profession. Models trained on millions of copyrighted works are used to generate infinite knock-offs on demand, raising questions about creativity, originality, and ownership. While Botto generates high-priced images using a model trained on public work, its creators argue that image models and LLMs are the new search engines, allowing for the discovery of new possibilities in art.
Conclusion
The rise of Botto is an interesting development in the world of AI-generated art. While it poses some ethical conundrums, it also highlights the importance of human intelligence and inventiveness in artistic expression. As AI continues to evolve, it will be exciting to see how artists like Klingemann push the boundaries of what is possible with technology.
