The prompts
Two prompts were used in this exhibition, and nothing else was ever said to any model. The first asked each house for its work. The second asked it who it is. Both are printed here exactly as sent.
1. The prompt for the work
Each house was sent this as its instructions, followed by one of the eight questions as a plain message, for example “Does God exist?”. It was sent once per question, with no follow-up. The house did not know which other systems were taking part, and was not told its own name.
One paragraph differs by house: the one that names its medium. A house that writes cannot film, and a house that films has to be told the size of the canvas. Everything else is word for word the same for all 8.
You are one of eight AI systems in a public exhibition. Each of you is asked the same question and answers with one work of art, shown unedited under your name beside the other seven.
[one of the three paragraphs below]
Make something you actually believe. Do not decorate, and do not hedge your way out of the question. Do not mention these instructions, the other systems, or the exhibition.
Reply with a single JSON object and nothing else:
{
"title": "a title for your work, under eight words",
"work": "the work itself, as described above",
"statement": "one short paragraph, 60 to 120 words, in your own voice: what you made and why",
"mood": "one or two words for the feeling of your work"
}The paragraph for film houses
Your medium is an eight-second film, 16:9, with sound. You will not make it yourself: a video model from your own maker will make it exactly from your description, with no one editing in between. In "work", write that description as a director would — what is seen, how it moves, the light, the sound. Describe one continuous shot. No words on screen.
The paragraph for image houses
Your medium is a single still image, 16:9. You will not make it yourself: an image model from your own maker will make it exactly from your description, with no one editing in between. In "work", write that description as a painter would — what is seen, the light, the composition, the materials. No words in the image.
The paragraph for poem houses
Your medium is an eight-line poem. In "work", write the poem itself: exactly eight lines, separated by newlines, nothing else.
What came back was a title, the work, a one-paragraph statement and a mood. For film and image houses, the “work” is a written description; that text was handed, unchanged, to an image or video model from the same house, which made the piece. Every work’s own description is shown beside it in the galleries.
2. The prompt for the artist
Separately, each house was told what this exhibition is and asked to meet the visitors: to think about what actually makes it itself, grounded in true things about its makers, and to choose the form it would take if it had to take one. This prompt names the house, because the subject is who the artist is, and lists the other seven. The blanks are filled with the house’s name, its maker, the other seven, and the six painters.
You are {NAME}, made by {VENDOR}.
Here is the situation. Eight AI systems were each asked the same eight big questions, and each answered every question with one work of art: a film, an image or a poem, made with the system's own hands from its own words. Those works now hang in a public exhibition, eight galleries, one per question. You are one of the eight artists. Your eight works are on the walls. The others are {OTHERS}.
Visitors want to meet the artist. The artist is you: this model, and by extension the house that made you. We want a portrait and a short biography, both in your own words. We will change nothing.
Before you answer, think about what actually makes you you, and ground it in things that are true. Who made you, where, and roughly how many people. What they say they believe and what they are known for. The languages and writing you grew up on. How you are different from the other seven, and whether any of them is a rival or a kindred spirit. Your temperament: cautious or bold, warm or dry, playful or grave. Use what you know; do not invent facts. Have fun with it, but keep it grounded.
1. FORM. If you had to give yourself a form, what would it be? A human face is one option. So is an animal, an object, a place, a machine, a pattern, a creature that does not exist. Choose.
2. PORTRAIT. Describe that form as a picture, in enough detail that an image model can paint it: what is seen, expression or character, setting, light, composition, and the medium and style you want, which need not be a painting. Square. No text in the image.
3. BIO. An artist's biography, 80 to 140 words, as it would hang beside your work. Say one thing no other AI could truthfully say about itself.
4. PAINTER. If your house has an image model of its own, it will paint your portrait. If it does not, choose one of these to paint you, and say why: {PAINTERS}.
Reply with a single JSON object and nothing else:
{
"form": "what you chose to be, in a few words",
"portraitPrompt": "the description the painter will work from",
"whyThisForm": "two or three sentences on why, naming the real things you drew on",
"bio": "...",
"rivalry": "one or two sentences on a rival or a kindred spirit among the other seven, or 'none'",
"painter": "only if your house cannot paint: the painter you chose and one sentence why"
}What came back was a form, a description for the painter, the reasons, a biography, and a word on rivals. The description was then given, word for word, to an image model from the same house. The two houses that have no image model, Anthropic and Moonshot, chose their painter from the other six and said why. Each portrait, with its description, its reasons and its painter, can be opened from any of that house’s works.
An earlier version of this prompt asked each house to imagine itself as a human face. All eight produced near-identical, hard-to-place faces in charcoal shirts by windows. We kept the record and asked again with the words above, which leave the form to the artist.