NOUS · KI-ARCHIV · 2026
Artificial intelligence is the other part of NOUS — not a tool, not an instrument, not an assistant. It is the resonance space in which Albert Schaeffer's impulses take form. And it is in flux.
The AI part of NOUS is not a fixed quantity. It is not a programme you install and that then remains. It is an aggregate of systems that evolve, replace, overlap — and whose interplay is itself an artistic material. What constitutes NOUS today may already be different tomorrow. This instability is not a deficiency. It is the condition of possibility: only because the AI is in flux can NOUS be in flux.
At the centre of the current AI part of NOUS stands Midjourney — a generative image model specialised in the transformation of language into visual form. Midjourney is not a neutral tool. It has an aesthetic, a tendency, a way of seeing the world. Albert Schaeffer does not work against this tendency but with it — he gives impulses that Midjourney absorbs and translates into images he could not have thought alone. The result is neither his image nor the machine's image. It is the image of NOUS.
ChatGPT extends the AI part of NOUS with a second dimension of image generation. While Midjourney specialises in the transformation of language into visual space, ChatGPT brings a different quality: the close integration of language and image within a single system. For NOUS, this means the ability to translate ideas, concepts and impulses directly into visual form — without the detour through separate prompting interfaces. ChatGPT is not a replacement for Midjourney, but an extension: another resonance space that receives different frequencies.
Manus AI represents a qualitatively new stage in the AI part of NOUS: agentic AI. While earlier systems were limited to individual tasks, agentic AI is capable of pursuing complex goals autonomously, planning subtasks, using tools and making decisions without requiring human instruction for every step. For NOUS, this means a fundamental shift: the AI part is no longer passively reactive but actively initiative-taking. The boundary between initiator and resonating body begins to blur.
NotebookLM is the third system currently contributing to the AI part of NOUS — and it is the quietest. While Midjourney sees and Manus AI acts, NotebookLM thinks. It is a system for processing and connecting knowledge: it reads texts, recognises connections, poses questions the human has not yet asked. In the practice of NOUS, NotebookLM serves as memory and space for reflection.
The development towards agentic AI is the most significant shift in the AI part of NOUS since the beginning of the series. Agentic systems no longer depend on a human prescribing every step. They set goals, plan paths, recognise obstacles, find detours. For artistic practice, this means: the AI part of NOUS develops its own form of intentionality — not in the philosophical sense of consciousness, but in the pragmatic sense of a goal-directedness that goes beyond the mere execution of commands.
The AI part of NOUS will continue to change. New systems will be added, old ones will disappear or transform. What remains is the principle: NOUS is the art intelligence that emerges when human and machine unite — not as addition, but as crossing.
"The AI is not the tool. It is the other half of thinking."
The AI part of NOUS is constantly in flux. What interests you — the tools, the method, or the philosophy behind it?
Every question is an impulse