AI Sapien

Robert Cha is a Korean American architect and artist. He was educated at Princeton University and SCI-Arc. Cha’s work was exhibited at the 11th Venice Architecture Biennale. His interests include architecture as technology and its relation to music.

“Artificial intelligence (AI) applications have elicited both optimism and hesitation from architects who are unsure about what it might mean for the future of the discipline. AI Sapien, a new book by Robert Cha recently published by ORO Editions, puts forth a robust example of what co-authorship in this space might look like. The framework of AI Sapien utilizes both text and image in an interactive dance choreographed around Bach’s Goldberg Variations. While the reader might be first attracted to the imagery which offers exposure to the iterative process of working with text to image generative AI, chapter text provides another layer of depth and inquiry featuring conversations between Cha and various AI platforms including ChatGPT, Claude, and LaMDA (Bard). This transcript of dialog explores existential topics of sentience, being, and emotion connected to the identity of AI through a masterful curation of several text outputs from large language models. Unanswered contemporary questions regarding the future of AI, including assigning rights or personhood to AI intelligences, are addressed through a highly accessible and personable conversation.

AI Sapien’s imagery allows the reader to witness the development of a focused architectural investigation through several image sequences progressing in scale, detail, and materiality. The architecture itself is given poetic voice which overlays character as it puts forth positions. Conventional relationships of building to its locale are modernized to question the assumed relationship of edifice to ground plane. As a result of this inquiry, the reader can witness building designs being freed from their shackles to site and developing legs as if to move at will. Each sequence of iterative images can be conceptualized as a flip book of sorts demonstrating the curatorial process of working with AI. As an architect using these tools, I find AI Sapien to be an excellent example of a focused and thoughtful architectural exploration which celebrates the potential of co-authorship with machine learning.” – Brian M. Kelly, AIA

ISBN: 978-1-961856-36-3
Binding: Softbound
Pages: 192pp
Publication Date: Fall 2024
Size: 9″ x 9″ Square
World Rights: Available