This Artist Uses Robots to Paint AI Prompts & People Are Losing Their Minds

The AI art controversy has entered a new, insufferable phase, and this time, the rage is directed squarely at Bauhaus Automata, a boutique Canadian art-tech startup that insists robots can paint just as well as humans. Their latest project, ART/PROMPT, is a collaboration with Tim Boucher, the artist (or, as some critics put it, “AI prompt copy-paster”) who has already made waves for cranking out over 120 AI-assisted books in record time.

“Robots can be artists too,” claims Bauhaus Automata. Artists disagree. Violently.

What’s Happening?

The premise of ART/PROMPT is simple — and deeply aggravating. Generative AI produces a photographic representation of a hand-painted piece of art that consists of a text prompt. Then, naturally, a robotic arm carefully paints the design onto a canvas, and Bauhaus Automata calls it a revolutionary artistic statement. The company insists that the project “explores the intersection of human imagination and robotic execution” — blah, blah, blah. Reddit rightly insists that it’s an insult to anyone who has ever held a paintbrush.

The Internet Explodes: “Tim Boucher is Everything Wrong with AI Art”

The backlash was immediate and ferocious, especially among Reddit’s artist communities. A viral thread on r/mildlyinfuriating tore into both the project and Boucher himself, whose lucrative AI-assisted book empire has already sparked controversy.

• “Tim Boucher and this nonsense are a perfect storm of art-world grift.”
• “AI ‘artists’ are genuinely worse than NFT bros.”
• “Imagine spending years mastering painting, only for some startup to tell you a robot can do it faster and better.”

Tim Boucher: “AI Is My Paintbrush”

Boucher, who has defended his AI-assisted book production against critics before, is sticking to the same narrative. In a recent interview, he doubled down:

“AI is just a tool. It doesn’t replace human creativity — it enhances it. ART/PROMPT challenges the idea of authorship and who gets to call themselves an artist.”

Reddit, predictably, was not buying it.

• “If AI is ‘just a tool,’ why is it doing all the work?”
• “Bro is literally mass-producing books and paintings using robots and acting like he’s some kind of visionary.”
• “Next up: AI-generated music performed by robot orchestras, so we can really kill off every creative industry.”

Is This the Future of Art? Or a Soulless Stunt?

Bauhaus Automata insists that ART/PROMPT is more than just a gimmick, describing it as “a meditation on the evolving role of AI in artistic expression.” But for many, it’s just another sign that the art world is being hollowed out in real time by Silicon Valley tech bros.

So, is ART/PROMPT a brilliant new medium, or just the latest way to devalue human creativity? Judging by the absolute meltdown happening online, it might not matter — because people are furious either way.