ai-powered spambots scribe the stories of their fate

 

Combining found objects with technology in an unexpected union, Neil Mendoza’s small fleet of AI-powered Spambots narrate a whimsical response to Aldous Huxley’s dystopian novel, Brave New World. In a live installation powered by AI models, the robotic Spam cans band together as they become empowered to tell their tales to the audience through the written word.

 

Each bot is equipped with a four letter keyboard connected to a main screen, and through a neutral network trained on the novel’s prose they retell the chapters, randomly replacing nouns and verbs with pig-related alternatives.

neil mendoza's fleet of AI-powered robotic spam cans narrate their tales with keyboards in hand
Spambots scribe their stories in a whimsical installation | all images courtesy of Neil Mendoza

 

 

neil mendoza’s whimsically dystopian installation

 

Once simply branded cans of cooked pork, artist Neil Mendoza’s Spambots now take on the role of storytellers. Connected to a main computer screen and with their own small keyboards in hand they collaborate to type the whole alphabet along with some punctuation.

 

The Spambots’ porcine prose is generated by a deep learning-based large language model, fine-tuned on a specially altered ‘piggy version’ of Brave New World. In this novel each character is unwittingly born and boxed into a caste in much the same way industrial farm animals — such as those that end up in Spam — are born into fates they did not choose. Now, the discarded pork cans live to tell their tale in a whimsical yet dystopian installation.

neil mendoza's fleet of AI-powered robotic spam cans narrate their tales with keyboards in hand
AI models train the bots to type an alternate ‘piggy’ version of Brave New World

spambots ai powered spam 3
Neil Mendoza’s small fleet of robotic Spam cans band together with their small four-letter keyboards

 

 

project info:

 

name: Spambots
designer: Neil Mendoza

 

designboom has received this project from our DIY submissions feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. see more project submissions from our readers here.

 

edited by: ravail khan | designboom