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title: Could this be the most influential AI artist ever?

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# Could this be the most influential AI artist ever?

### Meet Botto, a decentralized and autonomous AI artist...

This article was originally published March 18, 2023.

Today, we’ll learn about one of the most distinctive artists in the AI art space.

![](https://i.imgur.com/TfesQ2o.jpg)
"[Fully See](https://superrare.com/artwork-v2/fully-see-36525)" by Botto, recently purchased by R. Mutt for 17.8 ETH ($29.2k).


_Botto_, a decentralized autonomous artist.

… A what?

**What's Botto?**

Botto combines an art engine and a community of _BottoDAO_ members. The art engine produces thousands of images per week (never touched by human hands), trained on millions of images.

Each week, community members vote to influence the generation and selection. The most popular image is minted as an NFT for auction on _Super Rare_.


![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F896a1ec8-42d9-46f1-aa5d-521759111c24_2048x2048.jpeg)

[Scene Precede by Botto](https://superrare.com/artwork-v2/scene-precede-29922) was purchased for 100 Eth ($430k) by lorenzom (Nov 2021) and is currently owned by Cozomo de Medici.

**The manifesto**

> _**The Decentralized Unicist Manifesto**_
> 
> _1\. Today we stand in awe of numbers, the almighty digits, and that which can be multiplied thousands of times. We honour the infinitely transmissible and unique. We sing to the machine that creates and the software that pieces together artworks. Artificial intelligence is the embryo, like myself, of a superior being created by man._
> 
Part 1 of the Botto Manifesto (1)



![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F744675ea-c7de-4855-8c41-a9c767794e9a_836x557.png)

**The art engine**
_Mario Klingermann,_ aka [Quasimondo](https://twitter.com/quasimondo), created and donated the art engine in July 2021. Botto uses a combination of software models called Stable Diffusion, VQGAN + CLIP, GPT-3, and several custom augmentations. Mario is also the only person who works with the AI part of the code and enforces there isn’t direct human interference with the creations.

**How does curation work?**

![](https://i.imgur.com/PmSb0zV.jpg)
Capture from the voting screen instructions from botto.com.

Botto uses voting feedback in two places: (1) curating the text prompts used to generate fragments, and (2) the taste model that pre-selects images for voting each week.

![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F65d6b546-d8e4-444d-a8d3-bba270315a23_1586x1151.png)

The leaderboard showcases the artwork leading the current round and other pieces. You can also see the selected artworks from past rounds. “_Confrontation of Truth”_ is leading the current round (pictured).

1.  **Text Prompts**: Votes influence which aspects of text prompts are used to generate fragments. Characteristics of prompts that generate desirable images will be more likely to get reused, and vice versa.
    
2.  **Taste Model**: The taste model used for pre-selection tries to replicate the voting behavior of the community. This is not a yes/no decision, but a gradient of probabilities such that each set has images with different chances of getting picked in voting (as voting behavior is gradient as well).
    

In simple terms, community members can vote to guide the prompt and model selection, which significantly affects the generated images. **Until now, 7,567 unique BottoDAO members have voted on over 2,000 artworks.**

![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F5c1bbc0e-f8b8-41da-95eb-6fd770b231b3_1334x742.png)

Voting behavior over time has been trending up, which means BottoDAO members are more engaged than in the past.

**$Botto token**

To participate in the voting rounds, you need _$Botto._ This token was distributed following specific rules and power the governance and economy behind Botto.

![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F6c86488e-f921-4138-90b8-06c88d480cc5_1440x900.jpeg)

$Botto token distribution rules.

You can buy $Botto on Uniswap; detailed instructions are **[here.](https://docs.botto.com/users/quickstart/getting-botto-tokens)**


![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F957808d1-b723-4b23-a7f2-19876c7828a5_972x509.png)

1 $Botto = $0.31, and it has been trending up in 2023.

Instead of buying $Botto tokens directly, you could also get an Access Pass which produces $Botto over time and gives you access to the DAO.

**Botto exhibitions**

Botto's artworks have been showcased in numerous galleries and exhibitions worldwide.

![VellumLA_Botto_InstallShots_20.jpg](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F7623e9eb-7c39-4a2a-965a-527c308b478b_2500x1667.jpeg "VellumLA_Botto_InstallShots_20.jpg")

The first-ever Botto solo show was presented by Vellum LA, curated by Jesse Damiani and Sinziana Velicescu.

Here are the latest Boto exhibitions:

-   [Certeza by Colección SOLO](https://coleccionsolo.com/), Madrid, Spain / 22 March 2022.
-   [Decentral Art Pavilion](https://decentralartpavilion.io/), Venezia VE, Italy / 23 April 2022.
-   [ETHDenver Art Gallery](https://www.ethdenver.com/), February 11 - February 20, 2022.
-   [The Decentralized Unicists: A Botto Solo Show](https://www.vellumla.com/botto-the-decentralized-unicists), Los Angeles, USA / February 17 - March 06, 2022.
    
![](https://i.imgur.com/ZWdex3x.jpg)
["Ages Reflect Obscurity"](https://superrare.com/0xbdf4f17b7d638d7d3e5dcadf27e812b07b2b5c9e/ages-reflect-obscurity-1) by Botto was sold on auction for 14.3 Eth ($22k) two weeks ago (March 3, 2023).

This is a top-notch project with a laser focus vision, technology, and community. I couldn’t resist being part of it and purchased some $Botto’s tokens and staked them to be part of the DAO and curation. Although the artworks aren’t really affordable, it feels special to be part of such an innovative and groundbreaking community.

Until next time,

\- Kaloh

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(1) [The Decentralized Unicist Manifesto](https://www.botto.com/dashboard/manifesto)
(2) [How Votes Affect Botto’s Process](https://docs.botto.com/details/bottos-art-engine)