Robot dogs with hyper-realistic silicone heads modelled after Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Kim Jong-un, Andy Warhol, and Pablo Picasso are now roaming Berlin's Neue Nationalgalerie museum. The installation by American digital artist Beeple opened Tuesday, April 28 and features robots that capture photos with built-in cameras, then pooped out printed pictures transformed by artificial intelligence to match each figure's style.
The Pablo Picasso dog poops fractured, abstract-style images. The Andy Warhol robot prints bright, colorful celebrity-style photos. The tech billionaire dogs create pictures filtered through their social media algorithms.
The exhibition titled "Regular Animals" opened at the Berlin museum this week after first appearing at Art Basel Miami Beach in December 2025. Each robot sold for $100,000 at the Miami art fair, with all editions selling out during the VIP preview.
At Art Basel, Beeple handed out the robot-produced photos with certificates reading "100% organic GMO-free dog shit." Some prints included QR codes for free digital collectibles, NFTs.
Each robot roams the gallery with chest-mounted cameras photographing visitors and surroundings. Onboard AI processes these images to reflect the worldview of whichever head the robot wears. The machines then print and excrete the transformed images onto the gallery floor.
The lineup includes Tesla boss Elon Musk, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon's former CEO Jeff Bezos, North Korea's Kim Jong-un, famous dead artists Pablo Picasso and Andy Warhol, plus two robots with Beeple's own face.
According to AP, Beeple told reporters that tech billionaires now shape our view of the world through algorithms. "That's an immense amount of power that I don't think we've fully understood, especially because when they want to make a change, they don't need to lobby the U.N. They don't need to get something through Congress or the EU, they just wake up and change these algorithms," Beeple said.
Beeple's real name is Mike Winkelmann. He became the third most expensive living artist in March 2021 when his digital artwork "Everydays: The First 5000 Days" sold at Christie's for $69.3 million. That sale marked the first time a major auction house sold a purely digital artwork.
Lisa Botti, curator of the Berlin exhibition, said artificial intelligence is one of the phenomena most impacting lives today. Museums are the places where society can reflect on such transformations, she told reporters.
Beeple creates and posts one piece of digital art every day as part of his "Everydays" series. The robots will function for three years before they stop recording images.
Ogbonda Chivumnovu
