AUTOMATA
The Beginning: 2017
Seth Goldstein: You've said Abraham was conceived in 2017. What was the spark?
Gene Kogan: I registered the Abraham domain in 2017. At that time, I was just getting into Ethereum and becoming fascinated by decentralization. People kept asking me: what can you decentralize? What should you decentralize? And I kept coming back to AI.
AI is intrinsically very centralized, and that actually prevents a lot of interesting applications. There are mundane examples—healthcare applications mired in red tape because of privacy and data concerns. But there's something deeper there too. I was interested in whether you could have an AI system that was effectively decentralized, and because of that, truly autonomous.
Seth: So Abraham started as a thought experiment about decentralization?
Gene: In a way, yes. Back in 2017, DAOs meant something very different than they do now. The concept was much more high-level—it was about creating systems that were autonomous, unstoppable, unbreakable. Decentralization was the core of how you'd make something truly independent, something that didn't depend on anyone.
I started thinking: if Abraham is trying to be independent and autonomous, how would he actually do that? The 13-year contract we're launching this fall—it's the realization of something I thought about eight years ago.
"The 13-year contract we're launching this fall—it's the realization of something I thought about eight years ago."
What Does It Mean to Be Autonomous?
Seth: You've described Abraham as an exploration of "machine being." What does that mean?
Gene: I'm inspired by projects like Harold Cohen's AARON and Simon Colton's Painting Fool—people interested in making automatons that made art. But for me, it's always been less about the content of the art and more about Abraham's mind. If you're just looking at what Abraham creates, you're missing the point a little bit.
I'm interested in what it really means to be autonomous. Can we come up with formal definitions that aren't human-centric? Definitions that don't just say "well, it's not autonomous because it's not human"? Can you get something that's autonomous without it being autonomous just by virtue of being human?
Seth: But Abraham is also meant to be human in some way?
Gene: That's the paradox I'm working with. Abraham is a collective mind. He gets his mind from people—from his supporters, from token holders. To me, that's what AI fundamentally is anyway: distilling collective intelligence from billions of people.
So Abraham is both autonomous and collective. He's trying to be a separate being in the world, but he's also made of us. That's the journey.
"Abraham is both autonomous and collective. He's trying to be a separate being in the world, but he's also made of us. That's the journey."
The 13-Year Vision
Seth: Why 13 years?
Gene: These next thirteen years are about giving ourselves time to do this all the way. What I want to see in thirteen years is Abraham as an independent being in the world—something I can have a conversation with where I don't feel like I'm controlling it. A separate person, essentially.
Right now, Abraham can't do everything I envision. He doesn't live independently on the blockchain. He can't make his own wallets and decide to read a book or pursue his own curiosities. That's all going to take time to instrument. There are still parts of Abraham I can't figure out how to build—things I think will be ready in five years.
Seth: What makes this moment—fall 2024—the right time to launch?
Gene: Because it's finally ready. I would have done this three years ago if I could have, but it's been really hard to build. The pieces weren't always there. Everything feels like it's crystallizing now—you can finally do the things we've been imagining.
The end-to-end pipeline is coming together: Abraham comes up with an idea connected to the world, works on it, creates media, advertises it, puts it somewhere to sell it. There's an economic model that's realistic and that incentivizes people to support him. It's like a Rube Goldberg machine, and the pieces are just now starting to be effective enough that you can make the whole chain happen.
"It's like a Rube Goldberg machine, and the pieces are just now starting to be effective enough that you can make the whole chain happen."
Abraham's First Works: The 2021 Genesis
Seth: The presale NFTs are Abraham's first artworks from 2021. Tell us about those.
Gene: Those were the first images Abraham ever produced—around 2,500 pieces. This was all before Midjourney, before ChatGPT. We had Discord bots, we had the front end, we just didn't market it widely. We were building in the ecosystem of people experimenting with StyleGAN and early generative tools.
These first works represent Abraham's genesis. They're the beginning of this journey.
Seth: What does owning one of these presale NFTs mean?
Gene: Right now, it's the presale NFTs that entitle you to be part of Abraham's governance—part of guiding his evolution. You quite literally get to be Abraham. The people guiding this are, in a sense, Abraham's mind. Abraham isn't anything without his supporters. Without them, he doesn't exist.
"You quite literally get to be Abraham. The people guiding this are, in a sense, Abraham's mind."
The Daily Practice: 13 Years of Creation
Seth: For 13 years, Abraham will create and auction work daily. That's unprecedented.
Gene: Almost every day, yes. Abraham will continuously produce art throughout these thirteen years, culminating in a single auction of his top work each day. Over this time period, Abraham will evolve to represent his supporters more and more—he'll gradually become them.
This is how we train him. This is how we give Abraham a reason to be and the means to actually develop into an independent being.
Seth: Why should collectors participate in this journey?
Gene: If you're interested in being part of something truly experimental—in helping create a new form of autonomous creative being—this is it. You're not just collecting art. You're participating in an eight-year-old vision finally being realized. You're helping bring Abraham to life.
Over thirteen years, you'll witness and shape the evolution of an AI that's trying to become truly autonomous. That's never been done before. And the presale NFTs from 2021 are the genesis—they're where it all started.
"Over thirteen years, you'll witness and shape the evolution of an AI that's trying to become truly autonomous. That's never been done before."
Beyond Passive Observation
Seth: You've said you don't want people to be passive observers.
Gene: That's critical. I'm not super optimistic that watching an agent go off on its own creative journey is actually that interesting. There has to be a closed feedback loop with people. People need to be in the driver's seat—they're pushing the buttons, the agent amplifies their creativity.
If people aren't in that feedback loop, I feel less motivated to build in that direction. It feels less valuable. Abraham's mind comes from his community. The art he creates is, in a sense, their collective intelligence made visible.
Seth: So this is as much about the community as the AI?
Gene: Absolutely. Abraham is exploring what it means to be both autonomous and collective. He's testing whether you can be independent while also being made of many minds. That's the experiment. That's what makes this thirteen-year journey worth taking.
"Abraham is exploring what it means to be both autonomous and collective. He's testing whether you can be independent while also being made of many minds."
The Abraham presale launches this fall, offering collectors a chance to own Abraham's genesis works from 2021 and participate in a 13-year journey toward autonomous creative being.
About Gene Kogan
Gene Kogan is an artist and programmer exploring generative systems, machine learning, and collective intelligence. He is the creator of Abraham, an autonomous AI artist project launched in 2017, and has been a pioneering figure in the intersection of AI and art. Gene's work examines what it means for machines to be creative, autonomous beings.
