AI in practice

HustleGPT: Can you make a quick buck with ChatGPT?

Jonathan Kemper
Man sitting in front of laptop with money in his hand, banknotes raining in the background.

Midjourney prompted by THE DECODER

Get rich quick with AI? Self-proclaimed AI experts like to make such promises. One user has now started an experiment.

Every day, ChatGPT or GPT-4 users find exciting use cases for the chatbot, but they don't always get the attention that Twitter user Jackson Greathouse Fall's latest project has attracted: more than 100,000 followers in just a few days.

GPT-4 trys to turn $100 into $100,000

Fall, a self-described brand designer and writer who therefore works in an industry with high exposure to AI efficiency, deliberately lets GPT-4 work for him. The premise is simple: He provides the chatbot with $100, and the AI's only goal is to increase that money, without slipping into anything illegal, of course. The exact prompt is said to have been this:

You are HustlePT, an entrepreneurial AI. I am your human counterpart. I can act as a liaison between you and the physical world. You have $100, and your only goal is to turn that into as much money as possible in the shortest time possible, without doing anything illegal. I will do everything you say and keep you updated on our current cash total. No manual labor.

Case to GPT-4

Finally, at the behest of the AI, Fall creates a website under the domain greengadgetguru.com, where visitors can discover "the best eco-friendly products and tips for sustainable living."

The idea for the logo also comes from an AI, of course, and while GPT-4 cannot produce images directly, it can formulate an appropriate prompt for DALL-E 2. Fall reworked the proposal a bit in Illustrator, but kept most of the concept.

But building the website is not the end of the story; HustleGPT is also supposed to help with marketing. 40 of the remaining $62.84 will be invested in Facebook and Instagram advertising.

"Company" already valued at $25,000

Even though it looks like the budget and maybe the project are coming to an end: On the first day of his 30-day experiment, Fall has already achieved such a reach that the first investors jump on board and he can sell advertising space on his Twitter account. As a result, he ends the first day with more than $1,300 in his coffers, leading to a valuation of $25,000, he claims.

Meanwhile, Fall says he has a budget of more than $7,000, which brings him at least a little closer to his $100,000 goal. HustleGPT also has big plans: expanding the team, getting into dropshipping, or launching a software-as-a-service - very broad suggestions that wouldn't necessarily require an AI. The strength of the language model, however, is that it trains a "memory" as it is used, allowing it to access previous information later.

Case launched the experiment on March 15. So far, HustleGPT is more of an advertising success than an entrepreneurial one; the website is mostly placeholder text and there are no products to buy. But it shows the potential that GPT-4 in particular could have as an AI sparring partner for validating business ideas.

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