Hello makers,
Lately, I’ve been focused on having more fun with AI. Most of my time spent with agents goes towards building software and running my company, but recently I’ve been using AI to bring more art into my day.
I have six Grok Bots. Five have different jobs, from finding inspirational artists to making art themselves. The sixth, Leo, emails me a daily roundup of what they’re doing.
TLDR
Get yourself a bot
Give it something to do, on a schedule
Have fun with it!
A brief history of bots
In the beginning there was OpenClaw, an agent that’s always available, with memory and a “soul”. Then Hermes launched as the new alternative to OpenClaw. Later SpaceX AI released Grok Bot, and the AI-pilled community embraced their new bots. Shortly after, Muse from Facebook showed up in everyone’s feed. Most recently, OpenAI refused to be left out of Bot Mania, and launched Dots. What are these bots, how are they different from “regular” agents, and what can they do for you?
At their core, these bots have one thing in common. These are AI agents that have access to a computer, and run around the clock. What can an agent with a computer do? Pretty much anything you can do. People use these bots to order their usual from Starbucks, find and book cheap flights, organize email inboxes, and handle small errands.
I’ve been experimenting with what they can do for my art practice.
My daily art bots
Let me show you what I’m doing with Grok Bot right now.
Here’s what each bot does:
Vera sends me a roundup of social posts from artists I may be interested in. She scans Instagram and X for posts from the previous day and links directly to them.
Andy gives me a prompt every day for something to make. This is like Genuary, but every day of the year.
Banksy sends me a list of potential art opportunities each day: gallery calls for entries, public art projects looking for artists, or conferences looking for speakers.
Marcel actually creates a work of art from scratch every day. He mostly creates generative art, but he’s not limited to that medium.
Pablo researches one artwork in depth from an established artist. I get a link to a website showcasing the work, and a description of the work and the artist who made it.
So each day, I get an email from Leo with a summary of each of these findings. It’s a great way to start the day.
For now, I’m enjoying starting my day with art and opportunities I would have to spend hours finding on my own.
Now all of this could be done with any frontier model, but doing this myself would mean piecing together email, account access, and scheduling routines. With Grok Bot, I picked a name and it created an email address. I signed into Instagram and X on its computer, described what I wanted, and it set up the routine for me.
The best part for me is the separation of concerns. Each bot has its own job and conversation. I can navigate to Pablo to see only the daily artwork picks, going back to the beginning of our first conversation.
This is all part of a greater initiative I’ve given to myself to have more fun with AI. And if it helps my artistic practice, even better.
Bots have access to your data
One important trade-off is the amount of private access and personal information you’re handing over to these bots. I mentioned that I gave Vera access to my X and Instagram accounts. X already has my data, but it’s still a risk. Now, Vera is instructed to only read from those accounts, never to post. But we all know bots can go off the rails. Ideally, I would create an account just for Vera to access, but I want her to see who I’m interacting with on these social platforms, to help her choose which artist posts to highlight. And I can revoke access at any time.
We all know how Facebook has handled user data in the past. Do you really want to hand your bank account over to Muse?
So there are risks involved, and you should be aware of them.
This is the future of AI
I truly believe this is closer to the shape of how we will interact with AI in the future. We’ll have a personal assistant bot that’s always available, and intimately familiar with our day-to-day affairs. We’ll delegate tasks to our bots, and continue to go about our day.
For now, I’m enjoying starting my day with art and opportunities I would have to spend hours finding on my own. What’s one job you’d give your bot each day?
Keep making, and thanks for reading! 🙌
Reply and tell me what you’re making. I’m looking for anyone interested in talking about their own side-projects and maker journey, so speak up if you’d like to appear in Serial Maker. I’d also love to know what you thought of this issue, and what you want to hear about in the future. Check out the past editions if you missed them, and don’t forget to continue the conversation on Discord!
Until next time,
Craig 👋