Although while ChatGPT’s startup is still operating, it appears to be somewhat of a mess from the outside.

Recap: Around two weeks ago, Jackson Greathouse Fall, a self-described “AI soothsayer,” tweeted that he would be starting what he called the #HustleGPT challenge. In essence, Fall would ask ChatGPT to launch a business with a $100 investment. He would receive guidance from ChatGPT on how to expand and scale the company and serve as the “human liaison” for the bot, doing what it was told.

AI Brothers referred to the project as a “god mode” usage of ChatGPT, and Fall initially posted frequent updates that gave the project a sense of momentum. But as of right now, he hasn’t provided a fresh update since last Wednesday, leaving us to wonder what’s happening with the undertaking.

For starters, progress sounded shaky even when he was still posting updates. For instance, in his most recent statement from last week, he stated that the business, a sustainable e-commerce website he set up under the guidance of ChatGPT called Green Gadget Guru, had made $130 in sales. Yes, it would be something, but if Fall was putting in eight-hour days on the project, it still implies that his hourly pay as of that update was less than $3. At that pace, it would be difficult for him to repay his investors, who he claimed had put in about $7,700, let alone generate a profit.

Theoretically, a website like Green Gadget Guru might already be humming along. Fall was essentially instructed by ChatGPT to rebrand Green Gadget Guru as an affiliate marketing website, whereby it would make product recommendations and receive a tiny commission from any sales. There is all the technology available to launch a new affiliate organisation rapidly in that extremely well-established sector.

It did appear at first like Autumn was moving forward in a noticeable way. He revealed last week that ChatGPT had been replaced by two human employees to help with the company: a content writer tasked with using ChatGPT to generate blog posts for the company website and a graphic designer tasked with using the text-to-image generator Midjourney to produce the site’s imagery.

Nevertheless, based on the condition of the Green Gadget Guru website, ChatGPT appears to be having significant difficulties. Really, it’s very miserable. Seriously. Try it out for yourself.

For starters, despite Fall’s claims that a human writer will be producing content for the website, the only blog posts that have been posted so far, like this one about “Ten Eco Friendly Kitchen Gadgets,” only include the “lorem ipsum” text that designers use to test layouts before they have any content. If you give it some thought, it’s also a little odd that ChatGPT instructed Fall to employ a human writer in the first place. Why is ChatGPT unable to create blogs and copy by itself?

Another obvious problem is that the website doesn’t appear to sell any genuine goods. Technically, there are different product categories, but for some reason they are all represented by the same image of a green t-shirt, including Electronics, Home & Garden, Office Supplies, Personal Care, and Kitchen. But when you click on them, nothing appears to happen.

The website mentions a “eco-friendly water bottle” as a “featured product,” which is amazingly broad. Yet, the so-called water bottle is similarly represented by a picture of a green tote bag, and there doesn’t appear to be any way to actually purchase it. The water bottle or the tote bag, respectively.

What we can’t locate on the website—not a single affiliate link to any genuine product—is very odd. And it begs the question: how, in the absence of them, did the website make the meagre $130 in revenue Fall mentioned last week?

When we questioned Fall, he didn’t respond directly, but he did send us a brief statement outlining the Green Gadget Guru’s current situation.

He said, “AI directed website moving at human speed.” I’ll make good on my promise to provide more information shortly; I know everyone is anxious.

He also gave us a link to a tweet in which he appeared to admit that things had moved slowly.

It said, “I’ve gotta be honest with y’all, last week kicked my ass.” I’m still learning how to switch contexts frequently throughout the day and do all of my job.

Tomorrow, he adds, “more GGG + HustleGPT progress threads” (no new thread appeared the next day.)

We should point out that other internet users have their own reservations about the ChatGPT-run Green Gadget Guru.

HustleGPT fan and pessimist Dave Craige tweeted, “The unpleasant reality is that HustleGPT kinda started as a grift. The guy didn’t even clean up the website he got like $7,500 in investments for.” “We can do things fundamentally differently. We can advocate for a dramatically better approach to ethics/money.”

Another user on the internet questioned, as we did, “how did the $130 in money come about?,” in response to Fall’s final discussion regarding the initiative last week.

It is difficult to launch a business that truly generates revenue, especially with only $100 in startup expenditures. And it’s unbelievable that so many people thought investing in a business operated by a test chatbot would be a sound financial move. It’s simple to believe that for the majority of them, it was similar to purchasing some Dogecoin purely for amusement.

Even nonetheless, the contrast between Fall’s thread’s popularity and its questionable findings serves as an example of the reality-obscuring euphoria currently permeating the AI industry. In fact, it sometimes has a web3-like grifting smell, which is a form of digital scamming made possible by the frothy, unrestrained, and frequently unjustified excitement around a new gold rush technology. (According to his LinkedIn, Fall cofounded a blockchain business when the industry was booming.)

It’s important to note that AI bros have already started praising Fall’s work, claiming that the Green Gadget Guru made $130, and naming it one of the “most fantastic things” ever done with GPT-4, all while ignoring all of its blatant and obvious flaws. We are unsure of what is going on if it is not the hype cycle in action.

Having said that, it’s probable that Fall simply didn’t anticipate the response to his tweet, and he now has the onerous burden of watching ChatGPT attempt to operate a business—a role for which it doesn’t yet appear to be fully prepared.

The truth is that AI technology currently has a lot of unresolved issues, and as a result, its business applications are still unclear. Although its work frequently appears to be excellent on the surface, there are frequently significant problems that need to be resolved.

And who knows, really? Maybe with ChatGPT in charge, Green Gadget Guru will soar to success. Maybe all it needs is a little more time to get going for the chatbot and Autumn to do its bidding. We’ll be looking on.