Technology

Welcome to Chat Haus, the coworking space for AI chatbots

Nestled between an elementary school and a public library in Brooklyn’s Greenpoint neighborhood sits a new kind of “luxury” coworking space.

Dubbed the Chat Haus, this space has many of the elements you’d find in a traditional coworking office: people hammering away at their computer keyboards, another person taking a phone call, someone else pausing by their computer to take a sip of coffee.

There is, however, one key difference: Chat Haus is a coworking space for AI chatbots, and everything — including the people — is made out of cardboard.

More specifically, the Chat Haus is an art exhibit by Brooklyn artist Nim Ben-Reuven. It houses a handful of cardboard robots working away at their computers through movements controlled by small motors. There is a sign that offers desk space for “only” $1,999 a month and another that labels the space as “A luxury co-working space for chatbots.”

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 — which largely centers around graphic design and videography — is being pushed into the AI world. He added that he’s already getting denied freelance jobs as companies turn to AI tools instead.

IMG 1991 rotated — Credit: REbecca Szkutak

“It was like an expression of frustration in humor, so I wouldn’t get too bitter about the industry changing so quickly and under my nose and not wanting to be a part of the shift,” Ben-Reuven said. “So I was like, I’ll just fight back with something silly that I can laugh at myself.”

He said he also wanted to keep this exhibit from being too negative because he didn’t 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 “lighter tone” also helps it drawn in viewers of all ages and with all opinions on AI.

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.

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.

“I 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,” he said.

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’s worked on building these cardboard robots, or “cardboard babies” as he calls them. So while using these cardboard robots was a natural choice for display — he joked he also needed a reason to get them out of his apartment — the material is also providing another commentary on AI.

“The 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,” he said. “People 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’s garbage, and I feel like you look close enough at these cardboard things, they are easily collapsible and easily will fall under any weight.”

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.

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 — but is worried about where he’ll put any additional materials in his apartment once the display is over.

“I 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,” Ben-Reuven said.

The Chat Haus is currently on display in the front window of 121 Norman Avenue in Brooklyn, New York’s Greenpoint neighborhood.

Technology

Pintarnya raises $16.7M to power jobs and financial services in Indonesia

Pintarnya, an Indonesian employment platform that goes beyond job matching by offering financial services along with full-time and side-gig opportunities, said it has raised a $16.7 million Series A round.

The funding was led by Square Peg with participation from existing investors Vertex Venture Southeast Asia & India and East Ventures.

Ghirish Pokardas, Nelly Nurmalasari, and Henry Hendrawan founded Pintarnya in 2022 to tackle two of the biggest challenges Indonesians face daily: earning enough and borrowing responsibly.

“Traditionally, mass workers in Indonesia find jobs offline through job fairs or word of mouth, with employers buried in paper applications and candidates rarely hearing back. For borrowing, their options are often limited to family/friend or predatory lenders with harsh collection practices,” Henry Hendrawan, co-founder of Pintarnya, told TechCrunch. “We digitize job matching with AI to make hiring faster and we provide workers with safer, healthier lending options — designed around what they can reasonably afford, rather than pushing them deeper into debt.”

Around 59% of Indonesia’s 150 million workforce is employed in the informal sector, highlighting the difficulties these workers encounter in accessing formal financial services because they lack verifiable income and official employment documentation.

Pintarnya tackles this challenge by partnering with asset-backed lenders to offer secured loans, using collateral such as gold, electronics, or vehicles, Hendrawan added.

Since its seed funding in 2022, the platform currently serves over 10 million job seeker users and 40,000 employers nationwide. Its revenue has increased almost fivefold year-over-year and expects to reach break-even by the end of the year, Hendrawn noted. Pintarnya primarily serves users aged 21 to 40, most of whom have a high school education or a diploma below university level. The startup aims to focus on this underserved segment, given the large population of blue-collar and informal workers in Indonesia.

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“Through the journey of building employment services, we discovered that our users needed more than just jobs — they needed access to financial services that traditional banks couldn’t provide,” said Hendrawan. “We digitize job matching with AI to make hiring faster and we provide workers with safer, healthier lending options — designed around what they can reasonably afford, rather than pushing them deeper into debt.”

Pintarnya Founders Press Kit — image credits: Pintarnya (Founders of Pintarnya Ghirish Pokardas, Nelly Nurmalasari, and Henry Hendrawan)

While Indonesia already has job platforms like JobStreet, Kalibrr, and Glints, these primarily cater to white-collar roles, which represent only a small portion of the workforce, according to Hendrawan. Pintarnya’s platform is designed specifically for blue-collar workers, offering tailored experiences such as quick-apply options for walk-in interviews, affordable e-learning on relevant skills, in-app opportunities for supplemental income, and seamless connections to financial services like loans.

The same trend is evident in Indonesia’s fintech sector, which similarly caters to white-collar or upper-middle-class consumers. Conventional credit scoring models for loans, which rely on steady monthly income and bank account activity, often leave blue-collar workers overlooked by existing fintech providers, Hendrawan explained.

When asked about which fintech services are most in demand, Hendrawan mentioned, “Given their employment status, lending is the most in-demand financial service for Pintarnya’s users today. We are planning to ‘graduate’ them to micro-savings and investments down the road through innovative products with our partners.”

The new funding will enable Pintarnya to strengthen its platform technology and broaden its financial service offerings through strategic partnerships. With most Indonesian workers employed in blue-collar and informal sectors, the co-founders see substantial growth opportunities in the local market. Leveraging their extensive experience in managing businesses across Southeast Asia, they are also open to exploring regional expansion when the timing is right.

“Our vision is for Pintarnya to be the everyday companion that empowers Indonesians to not only make ends meet today, but also plan, grow, and upgrade their lives tomorrow … In five years, we see Pintarnya as the go-to super app for Indonesia’s workers, not just for earning income, but as a trusted partner throughout their life journey,” Hendrawan said. “We want to be the first stop when someone is looking for work, a place that helps them upgrade their skills, and a reliable guide as they make financial decisions.”

Technology

OpenAI warns against SPVs and other ‘unauthorized’ investments

In a new blog post, OpenAI warns against “unauthorized opportunities to gain exposure to OpenAI through a variety of means,” including special purpose vehicles, known as SPVs.

“We urge you to be careful if you are contacted by a firm that purports to have access to OpenAI, including through the sale of an SPV interest with exposure to OpenAI equity,” the company writes. The blog post acknowledges that “not every offer of OpenAI equity […] is problematic” but says firms may be “attempting to circumvent our transfer restrictions.”

“If so, the sale will not be recognized and carry no economic value to you,” OpenAI says.

Investors have increasingly used SPVs (which pool money for one-off investments) as a way to buy into hot AI startups, prompting other VCs to criticize them as a vehicle for “tourist chumps.”

Business Insider reports that OpenAI isn’t the only major AI company looking to crack down on SPVs, with Anthropic reportedly telling Menlo Ventures it must use its own capital, not an SPV, to invest in an upcoming round.

Technology

Meta partners with Midjourney on AI image and video models

Meta is partnering with Midjourney to license the startup’s AI image and video generation technology, Meta Chief AI Officer Alexandr Wang announced Friday in a post on Threads. Wang says Meta’s research teams will collaborate with Midjourney to bring its technology into future AI models and products.

“To ensure Meta is able to deliver the best possible products for people it will require taking an all-of-the-above approach,” Wang said. “This means world-class talent, ambitious compute roadmap, and working with the best players across the industry.”

The Midjourney partnership could help Meta develop products that compete with industry-leading AI image and video models, such as OpenAI’s Sora, Black Forest Lab’s Flux, and Google’s Veo. Last year, Meta rolled out its own AI image generation tool, Imagine, into several of its products, including Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger. Meta also has an AI video generation tool, Movie Gen, that allows users to create videos from prompts.

The licensing agreement with Midjourney marks Meta’s latest deal to get ahead in the AI race. Earlier this year, CEO Mark Zuckerberg went on a hiring spree for AI talent, offering some researchers compensation packages worth upwards of $100 million. The social media giant also invested $14 billion in Scale AI, and acquired the AI voice startup Play AI.

Meta has held talks with several other leading AI labs about other acquisitions, and Zuckerberg even spoke with Elon Musk about joining his $97 billion takeover bid of OpenAI (Meta ultimately did not join the offer, and OpenAI denied Musk’s bid).

While the terms of Meta’s deal with Midjourney remain unknown, the startup’s CEO, David Holz, said in a post on X that his company remains independent with no investors; Midjourney is one of the few leading AI model developers that has never taken on outside funding. At one point, Meta talked with Midjourney about acquiring the startup, according to Upstarts Media.

Midjourney was founded in 2022 and quickly became a leader in the AI image generation space for its realistic, unique style. By 2023, the startup was reportedly on pace to generate $200 million in revenue. The startup sells subscriptions starting at $10 per month. It offers pricier tiers, which offer more AI image generations, that cost as much as $120 per month. In June, the startup released its first AI video model, V1.

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Meta’s partnership with Midjourney comes just two months after the startup was sued by Disney and Universal, alleging that it trained AI image models on copyrighted works. Several AI model developers — including Meta — face similar allegations from copyright holders, however, recent court cases pertaining to AI training data have sided with tech companies.

Got a sensitive tip or confidential documents? We’re reporting on the inner workings of the AI industry — from the companies shaping its future to the people impacted by their decisions. Reach out to Rebecca Bellan at [email protected] and Maxwell Zeff at [email protected]. For secure communication, you can contact us via Signal at @rebeccabellan.491 and @mzeff.88.

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