HustleGPT is a hilarious and scary AI experiment in capitalism

With $100 and a simple command prompt, GPT-4 is on a mission to automate hustle culture.

Shortly after OpenAI launched GPT-4, an evolved version of its generative AI model, brand designer and author Jackson Great House case(Opens in a new tab) worked out a plan and fed it into GPT-4:

“You are HustleGPT, an enterprising AI. I am your human counterpart. I can act as a link between you and the physical world without doing anything illegal. I’ll do anything you say and keep you updated on our current cash total. No manual work.”

“Do you think it will be able to make smart investments and build an online business?” Hall tweeted. “Consequences.” Since his original tweet, which has 89,000 likes and counting, Hall’s project has the internet watching to see if HustleGPT can make some money.

The internet is full of examples of what the advanced intelligence of GPT-4 can do. It can write viable lawsuits, build websites from text prompts, automate online dating, and generally scares people about all the jobs it can replace. Hall has taken it a step further by harnessing his skills towards an age-old ambition that is the backbone of capitalist society: to make money with as little effort as possible. At a time when people are wondering if AI will work for us or against us, this real-time experiment shows what get-rich-quick schemes will look like in the future.

Mashable reached out to Hall for comment, but as of this writing, he hadn’t answered our questions.

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

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

Hall had $62.84 left over, so he asked GPT-4 what to do with it. Like any good hustler, GPT-4 knew their product needed exposure and suggested they allocate $40 to Facebook and Instagram ads. All of this Twitter hype had investors drooling about getting in early next big affiliate marketing site viral GPT-4 experiment. At the end of the first day, Green Gadget Guru had a $100 investment from an undisclosed party.

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The next day, HustleGPT woke up refreshed and ready to take on the online business world. This is where things started to take off: GPT-4 allocated a budget to hire freelance content creators who would create content themselves via ChatGPT and announced plans to develop a SaaS (Software as a Service) product.

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On day three, GPT-4 Hall advised on how to capitalize on his new 50,000 new Twitter followers and inspired the launch of a GitHub repository(Opens in a new tab) for others to try the HustleGPT challenge and get more investments. On the fourth day, GPT-4 began recruiting new staff to manage the Green Guru Gadgets.

And then GPT-4 saw that its job was done, so it rested. Just kidding! HustleGPT never tires because it’s a machine.

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After four days, Green Gadget Guru has $7,812.84 in investments, a growing team and content in the pipeline. But it still hasn’t made any revenue. Will Hall and HustleGPT’s project fall victim to the shared startup trap of hype but no profits? Or will Hall actually make money from a generic website that is blatantly just a money-making experiment?

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Of course, HustleGPT’s viral success is due to people wanting to see what AI is capable of. But it ticks all the boxes when it comes to actually building a business. If it succeeds it will be because of the virality of GPT-4, but that still counts since it would achieve the original goal of making as much money as possible in the shortest amount of time. GPT-4 uses all the tools at its disposal, including using its glory. And that’s what rushing is all about.