Robot dog with Elon Musk’s head poops out AI generated art
At this year’s Art Basel Miami, digital artist Beeple unveiled an unsettling yet thought-provoking installation titled “Regular Animals,” featuring six robotic dogs, each adorned with a hyper-realistic head of a notable figure such as Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, Andy Warhol, and Pablo Picasso. These flesh-toned robots engage in a bizarre performance art piece, where they intermittently lean back on their hind legs to “produce” Polaroid-like prints from their rear ends, humorously labeled as “Excrement Samples.” The LED screens on their backs flash “POOP MODE” during this act, provoking both laughter and discomfort among onlookers. Over the course of the exhibition, the robotic canines are expected to generate a staggering 1,028 unique prints, with 256 of these being verifiable NFTs available on cryptocurrency marketplaces.
Beeple’s installation serves as a commentary on the intersection of art, technology, and the influence of tech billionaires on our perception of reality. Each robotic dog is designed with its own “temperament,” reflecting the personality of the human it represents, with Musk’s dog categorized as a “cognitive blueprint” and Picasso’s as “proto-cubism.” As Beeple himself articulated, the project aims to challenge the notion of art as a one-way interaction. Instead, he envisions a world where art observes and learns from its audience, creating a feedback loop that highlights the growing dominance of algorithms and the narratives shaped by a select group of powerful figures in tech. While reactions to the installation have ranged from admiration to horror, with some calling it “beyond disturbing,” the allure of owning one of these robotic creations has proven irresistible, as all have reportedly sold for $100,000 each.
Ultimately, “Regular Animals” encapsulates a surreal blend of humor and critique, questioning the role of artists in a world increasingly curated by influential tech moguls. Beeple’s provocative work invites viewers to reflect on the implications of AI and digital art in contemporary society, making it a poignant highlight of this year’s Art Basel. As the lines between art and technology blur, the installation serves as a chilling reminder of the power dynamics at play in shaping our visual and cultural landscape.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=635g0nSwH6U
Robot dogs
are already a bit creepy. But slap on a hyper-realistic image of a
tech billionaire’s
face and have them literally crap out a piece of
AI-generated art
and you’re left with something that would make
Black Mirror
producers shudder.
That’s exactly what’s on display at Art Basel Miami, one of the world’s most prodigious art fairs. In
Regular Animals
, the event space is crowded with six flesh-toned robotic dogs, each bearing a detached, photorealistic head of Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, Andy Warhol, Pablo Picasso, or the installation’s creator,
digital artist Beeple
. Every few moments, the dogs stop, lean back on their hind legs, and pinch off a Polaroid-like print from their rear ends. A small LED screen on each dog’s back flashes “POOP MODE” while this performance art occurs.
Beeple’s REGULAR ANIMALS debut at Art Basel today
with Elon + Zuck finally in the ring, and Bezos too
pic.twitter.com/DsGwg8vj8H
— Steve Jurvetson (@FutureJurvetson)
December 3, 2025
BUCKLE UP
pic.twitter.com/SuLwQizLxj
— beeple (@beeple)
December 4, 2025
“What if the act of looking at art were no longer a one-way encounter, but part of a feedback loop in which the artwork observes, learns, and remembers us in return?” Beeple
said in an artist statement
accompanying the installation.
Each of the human-dog hybrids has cameras located around its head, continuously capturing photos of the surrounding environment. That data is used (presumably with the help of an
AI image generator
) to create the prints that the dogs “poop” out. Much like
AI-generated slop flooding the internet
, these digital creations are voluminous.
The New York Post
reports
that the robots will collectively produce 1,028 prints over the course of the exhibit, 256 of which are verifiable NFTs (
non-fungible tokens
) that can be listed on cryptocurrency marketplaces. Each image is labeled “Excrement Sample.” Unlike an actual dog’s daily sample, these will likely rack up monetary value over time.
But while the end products are appropriately
crappy
, no two photos are exactly alike. The piles of prints each carry an aesthetic that reflects the personality of the human head attached to the dog. The Picasso images appear geometric, while those pushed out of the Zuckerberg dog’s rectum look like a clip from a low-budget
Matrix
knockoff. More examples of the prints, which Beeple refers to as “memories,” are
viewable on the installation website
.
The human-dog hybrids featured at Art Basel Miami.
Image: Beeple Studios.
‘Beyond disturbing’
Each artist or billionaire inspired robot dog has its own “temperament.” For example, Elon Musk’s is described as a “cognitive blueprint,” while Picasso’s is “proto-cubism.” (Beeple’s dog, for what it’s worth, has a temperament of “dystopic futurism”). Each also has its own speed setting—slow, medium, or fast. Maybe unsurprisingly, the tech billionaires all fall into the fast category.
This dystopian fever dream is the brain-child of Mike Winkelmann, (aka Beeple) an artist best known for his oddball NFT images created at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. He gained mainstream attention in 2021after a collection of 5,000 of his images
sold for $69.3 million at Christie’s in its first-ever NFT auction
.
Beyond fueling nightmares, Beeple says the bigger point of this robodog project is to draw attention to how more and more of the observable world consists of benign design, created to fulfill the vision of a select few techno-billionaires. That, he says, contrasts with past eras, when artists played a greater role in shaping reality.
A robot dog featuring the face of Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg is part of an exhibition at Art Basel Miami.
Image: Beeple Studios.
“It used to be that we saw the world interpreted through the eyes of artists, but now Mark Zuckerberg and Elon, in particular, control a huge amount of how we see the world,” Beeple
told
The New York Post
.
“We see the world through their eyes because they control these very powerful algorithms that decide what we see.”
Reactions to the installation, at least so far, seem notably less highbrow. Commentators online have described the event as “terrifying,” “absurd,” and “beyond disturbing.”
One Instagram user, conversely, said they “want one” referring to the dog-human hybrid. Apparently, they aren’t alone. The
Post
notes that all of the robots on display have already sold, for $100,000 each. While it’s unclear who the dogs’ new owners are, plenty of deep-pocketed Silicon Valley titans and artists attended Art Basel.
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Robot dog with Elon Musk’s head poops out AI generated art
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