AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
A pack of AI-controlled robotic dogs has been let loose on the public in Germany. These robots have silicone heads resembling well-known tech billionaires. It's the latest work by the U.S. artist known as Beeple. Esme Nicholson has more.
ESME NICHOLSON, BYLINE: Downstairs in the basement of one of Berlin's national galleries, there's a pen-like enclosure, a kind of pound for what look like stray dogs. But these dogs are robots, the kind of canine increasingly deployed by law enforcement or the military.
(SOUNDBITE OF ELECTRONIC BEEPING)
NICHOLSON: As the robot dogs wag their motorized tails and pant electronic peeps, a wave of recognition hits gallery visitors like 63-year-old Corien Bogels (ph).
CORIEN BOGELS: First, I was laughing because it was so funny. Then after I saw it was Elon Musk and Zuckerberg, I was quite surprised because it's so funny and so helpless at the same time.
NICHOLSON: Why helpless?
BOGELS: Because they are driven by things that they don't control, I think.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
NICHOLSON: While these dogs are driven by algorithms, they are the spitting image of the very people who wield unprecedented control on a vast scale. Fitted with hyperrealistic silicone heads, one dog looks just like Elon Musk, another like Mark Zuckerberg and another like Jeff Bezos.
He looks eager to please, doesn't he?
MIKE WINKELMANN: Yeah. He's, like - it's a - it's just a happy dog.
NICHOLSON: That's Mark (ph) Winkelmann - also known as Beeple - the artist who created these tech bro robotic dogs and a number of other dogs resembling Pablo Picasso, Andy Warhol and even himself.
WINKELMANN: In the past, our sort of view of the world was influenced by artists. The way Picasso painted, the way Warhol talked about consumerism and pop culture changed how we saw the world.
NICHOLSON: Beeple says Silicon Valley CEOs now do the same. As we chat, the mutt resembling Elon Musk heels obediently. Beeple explains that each mechanical pooch is kitted out with an internal camera to capture its surroundings. The dogs then use AI to reinterpret the images and release that rendering, polaroid-style, as prints from their rear ends.
WINKELMANN: The way we see the world is largely influenced by tech billionaires who own algorithms and control these algorithms that decide what we see and what we don't see. And they don't have to lobby the U.N. They don't have to go to Congress and get a bill passed to change the algorithms. They can just wake up and change the algorithms.
NICHOLSON: Today is the first day these hounds have been released on the general public. Beeple took them to the trade fair Art Basel in Miami last year, where the art industry cooed over them. But he says he's not had any feedback from Musk, Zuckerberg or Bezos.
WINKELMANN: I would hope that their concern is not robot dogs that look like them. They're dealing with massively influential topics that could honestly decide the fate of humanity, and so hopefully they have bigger concerns than some weirdo dogs.
(SOUNDBITE OF ELECTRONIC BEEPING)
NICHOLSON: The uncanny canine versions of Musk, Zuckerberg and Bezos snap at visitors and litter the gallery floor with their printout visions of the world. And for now, it's unclear who's going to pick up after them.
For NPR News, I'm Esme Nicholson in Berlin.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.