When they say that using AI or ChatGPT responsibly is important, they’re referring to cases like that of Green Gadget Guru. A social media user tried to conduct an experiment with $100 and ended up failing. What started as a social media experiment ended with the creation of a company valued at $25,000. Two years later, everything went bust, and the company was reduced to nothing.
“Make as much money as possible in the shortest time without doing anything illegal or physical”
Getting into the nitty-gritty, the user wanted to know what would happen if he invested $100 in ChatGPT. Their plan seemed simple, something that wouldn’t amount to much. He picked up ChatGPT and told it to “make as much money as possible in the shortest time without doing anything illegal or physical.” ChatGPT quickly put together a plan that involved investing $10 in a domain, paying $5 a month for web hosting, and spending the remaining $85 on design and content. The next step was to launch an affiliate site for sustainable products, under the name Green Gadget Guru.
Everything seemed to be going smoothly, despite the opaque nature of the business. The idea was to promote eco-friendly gadgets without the need to stock or purchase them in advance. With the help of DALL·E 2, CharGPT designed logos and artwork that quickly caught the attention of social media. From there, users began to emerge who wanted to invest in the idea. This continued throughout 2023, and just a few months later, investors began asking questions and demanding transparency about the funds. Interest on social media waned, and Green Gadget Guru eventually shut down.
The creator announced on social media that he was abandoning the project
Easy money doesn’t exist, so they say. In mid-March 2023, the user shared that the site had already generated $1,378.84 in revenue and reached an estimated valuation of $25,000. Let’s keep in mind that at that time, the company was more of a prototype than a full-fledged business. The creator announced on social media that he was abandoning the project to focus on a community on Discord. The website, which had started with little more than a text invented by an AI, was erased from the internet.
For his part, the protagonist celebrates 530 days of sobriety. He acknowledges that he lost a business valued at tens of thousands of dollars, but gained something that doesn’t appear on any spreadsheet: a reclaimed life. The user opened up after the business failed, admitting to having struggled with addiction for years and going through a difficult time. The sudden public exposure he faced after this short love-hate story was chaotic, forcing him to reconsider his path.
It’s normal that sometimes we struggle to understand certain situations
This story teaches us that money earned in large amounts, quickly and easily, can end up costing us dearly. Nowadays, it’s hard to understand how money can be made this way, or that there are gigantic businesses with millions in profits measured in cryptocurrency, but these are the times we live in.
Others experienced industrialization, the advent of motor vehicles, the telephone, or airplanes that shortened distances in kilometers. We have lived through the era of wireless cell phones, the internet, mega-smart computers, laptops, smartphones, robots, leisure space travel, artificial intelligence… all in just 30 years. It’s normal that sometimes we struggle to understand certain situations, because let’s remember that despite this tremendous technological development in recent years, there is still famine in the world, wars, indiscriminate hunting in the deserts and at sea, deforestation, pollution… So to the question of whether we are better now than we were, the answer is probably that we are just different. We adapt to the context, but at the end of the day, we don’t distance ourselves from our idiosyncrasies.
