Ben-Reuven told TechCrunch that he built the exhibit as a way to cope and bring humor to the fact that most of his work \u2014 which largely centers around graphic design and videography \u2014 is being pushed into the AI world. He added that he\u2019s already getting denied freelance jobs as companies turn to AI tools instead.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/IMG_1991-rotated.jpg\")
Credit: REbecca Szkutak<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was like an expression of frustration in humor, so I wouldn\u2019t get too bitter about the industry changing so quickly and under my nose and not wanting to be a part of the shift,\u201d Ben-Reuven said. \u201cSo I was like, I\u2019ll just fight back with something silly that I can laugh at myself.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said he also wanted to keep this exhibit from being too negative because he didn\u2019t think that would tell the right message. He said creating art that is blatantly negative forces it into a corner and requires it to defend itself. He added giving the display a \u201clighter tone\u201d also helps it drawn in viewers of all ages and with all opinions on AI.<\/p>\n
While Ben-Reuven and I were chatting at Pan Pan Vino Vino, a cafe located across the street from the window display, numerous groups of people stopped to look at the Chat Haus. Three millennial-aged women stopped and took pictures. A group of just-out-of-school elementary-aged students stopped and asked their adult companions questions.<\/p>\n
Ben-Reuven also thought that despite what AI is doing to the industry he works in, the situation remains lighter than some of the other horrors and trauma going on in the world today.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean, AI, in terms of the creative world, seems like such a light thing compared to so many of the other, like war, things that are happening in the world and like the terror and the trauma that exists,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ben-Reuven has always used cardboard in his art. He made a lifesize-replica of an airport terminal out of cardboard in grad school. In between freelance jobs over the last decade, he\u2019s worked on building these cardboard robots, or \u201ccardboard babies\u201d as he calls them. So while using these cardboard robots was a natural choice for display \u2014\u00a0he joked he also needed a reason to get them out of his apartment \u2014\u00a0the material is also providing another commentary on AI.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe impermanence of this cardboard stuff, and the ability for it to collapse under even just a little bit of weight, is how I feel that AI is interacting with the creative industries,\u201d he said. \u201cPeople can make their Midjourney images that look really great on Instagram and excite 12 year olds to no end, but with any level of scrutiny, it\u2019s garbage, and I feel like you look close enough at these cardboard things, they are easily collapsible and easily will fall under any weight.\u201d<\/p>\n
He understands why consumers are drawn to some AI-generated art, though. He likened it to junk food and the fast-acting serotonin hit that comes from eating junk food before it gets digested quickly.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Chat Haus is a temporary display as the building that houses it awaits permits to get approved for renovation. Ben-Reuven hopes to keep the display up until at least mid-May and has hopes to move into a larger gallery if he can. He wants to be able to add more to it \u2014\u00a0but is worried about where he\u2019ll put any additional materials in his apartment once the display is over.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI just thought it would be funny to express this idea of, like, a whole bunch of kind of cute, kind of creepy, baby robots typing away because of our ChatGPT prompts in some warehouse somewhere, working non-stop taking as much like electricity as Switzerland ruses in a year,\u201d Ben-Reuven said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Chat Haus is currently on display in the front window of 121 Norman Avenue in Brooklyn, New York\u2019s Greenpoint neighborhood.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nestled between an elementary school and a public library in Brooklyn\u2019s Greenpoint neighborhood sits a new kind of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":55472,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3163],"tags":[323,1942,1315,29399,53,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-55471","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-chatgpt","11":"tag-coworking","12":"tag-technology","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114411456756853182","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55471","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55471"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55471\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55472"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}