THIS IS NOT THE 21ST CENTURY I’D BEEN HOPING FOR: HustleGPT is a hilarious and scary AI experiment in capitalism.

The internet is overflowing with examples of what GPT-4’s advanced intelligence can accomplish. It can write usable lawsuits, build websites from text prompts, automate online dating, and is generally freaking people out about all the jobs it can replace. Hall has taken this a step further by harnessing its capabilities into an age-old ambition that’s the backbone of capitalist society: making money with as little effort as possible. At a time when people are wondering whether AI will work for us or against us, this experiment is showing in real time how get-rich-quick schemes will look in the future.

The business plan proposed by GPT-4 was to set up an affiliate marketing site for content about eco-friendly products. It found a cheap domain name called greengadgetguru.com(Opens in a new tab) that Hall promptly bought for $8.16. Next, Hall asked it to generate prompts for DALL-E-2 to make a logo.

Then, Hall asked it to design a full site layout in detail. With some help from Midjourney, GPT-4 wrote an article listing ten eco-friendly kitchen gadgets, finding actual sustainable products. Hall shelled out another $29 for hosting, and with that, the website was live.

Hall had $62.84 leftover over so he asked GPT-4 what he should do with it. Like any good hustler, GPT-4 knew that its product needed visibility so it suggested allocating $40 for Facebook and Instagram ads. All of this Twitter hype had investors drooling over getting in early on the next great affiliate marketing site viral GPT-4 experiment. By the end of day one, Green Gadget Guru had $100 in investment from an undisclosed party.

A few hours later:

“After four days, Green Gadget Guru has $7,812.84 in investment, a growing team, and content in the pipeline. But it still hasn’t made any revenue.”

Getting investors without a product has a very dot-com era feel to it.