When a new technology hits the market, it usually doesn’t take long for people to start looking for ways to make money – and generative AI is no exception.
Of course, generative artificial intelligence (AI) – the best recent example might be ChatGPT – is not an everyday new technology. That means there’s also not the culture of money-making and entrepreneurship that has developed rapidly.
Using ChatGPT?Adobe Stock
Unlike “regular” AI, cloud computing, the Internet of Things (IoT), blockchain, and other technology trends that have emerged over the past decade or so, ChatGPT is extremely easy to use, offers instant power, and can be used by anyone.
This has led to the emergence of a culture called “Hustle GPT” — and proponents of it believe it can be used to build a fully automated online business from the ground up. For this new generation of aspiring AI entrepreneurs, the “holy grail” is a fully autonomous business that generates 24/7 passive income while they spend their lives enjoying the profits.
Is it really possible? Could we be witnessing the birth of the “technological utopia” that more optimistic futurists believe could be the result of the advent of AI in mainstream society? Where work is a thing of the past and our time is spent in higher pursuits such as learning, creativity and leisure? Let’s see what we can learn from the progress so far.
What is Hustle GPT?
I assume by now most people reading this know what ChatGPT and Generative AI are. If not, here is a simple introduction. You probably also know that it’s widely used to automate all sorts of mundane tasks in our daily lives, like writing emails, creating legal and technical documentation, and organizing workloads.
Hustle GPT takes this a step further by attempting to automate every step of building and running a business. This may include developing the initial idea, designing products and services, creating a marketing campaign, and managing sales, finance, and customer service.
Some attribute the beginning of the movement to a designer and writer named Jackson Greathouse Fall. He tweeted that he asked ChatGPT to come up with a plan to get the best return on an initial $100 investment without doing anything illegal.
His suggestions included building an automated software-as-a-service business and setting up a website to sell gadgets. It also had to work with other AIs like Dall-E 2 to create a logo and design a website. Apparently, the project quickly faltered, and a post on business tech blog The Hustle suggests that AI business ideas still require human intervention to succeed.
Still, an idea was born, and budding entrepreneurs around the world pursued it, hoping to figure out how to create their own fully automated, passive income-generating AI business models.
What are some examples of Hustle GPT business models?
One of Hustle’s most popular GPT business models is building websites and harnessing the power of affiliate marketing. This includes automating the creation of content as well as maintaining affiliate links that pay the site owner a commission when visitors make purchases through the site.
There is also a growing market for self-published books authored by AI. It’s possible to hire ChatGPT to write a book for you, use an AI image generator like Dall-E 2 or Stable Diffusion to create a cover, and then publish it through Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing platform publish. With a little knowledge of Python, most of the steps in this process could be automated, allowing you to produce large volumes of books very quickly. Whether anyone wants to read them or not is another question, but that certainly doesn’t stop many people from trying this business model.
GPT-4 is also used to develop and sell digital card games like Daring Dinosaurs and puzzle games like Bio Balance. In addition to designing the games, online marketing can also be carried out, sales processed and payments accepted from buyers.
ChatGPT and generative AI can also be used for financial investing – a recent report found that a theoretical portfolio of 38 stocks outperformed ten of the most popular funds on the Interactive Investor platform. Integration with APIs would allow automated trades to be processed, potentially allowing anyone to start an AI-managed mutual fund.
Of course, it is well known that in the gold rush, those who sell shovels make money first. One person has reported that ChatGPT helps them start a business based on creating business plans and selling services to other Hustle GPT entrepreneurs including apps, design templates and SaaS solutions and by selling online Content platforms such as Medium is advertised.
Is this the future of AI augmented business?
It’s clear that as of today, most of the action in the Hustle GPT community is experimental in nature, focusing on high-tech approaches to good old-fashioned get-rich-quick schemes. There’s a lot of bragging on social media from people promising to sell the secrets of Generative AI’s success. A cursory glance seems to indicate that the most commonly offered tactics are affiliate websites and self-published books. There isn’t much evidence yet that anyone has really succeeded.
Additionally, much of the community action is centered on the r/HustleGPT subreddit, where anyone can find ideas and get involved in new projects as they launch. There’s also the aicofounded.com website that offers tutorials and guides for anyone who wants to explore the possibilities for themselves. So far over 200 people have accepted the Hustle GPT Challenge proposed by the original Hustler Jackson Greathouse case.
The real reason these projects are interesting is that they show how different business functions can be coordinated and automated using AI. In the long term, this technology will have a profound and lasting impact on many aspects of how we do business and live.
The introduction of computers over the last century enabled us to create more efficient and streamlined business processes for everything from marketing to finance. In this decade, the impact of AI and generative AI will likely be just as significant, if not greater. Increasingly, workers in the information economy will find that their role is to oversee intelligent, automated processes, and the Hustle GPT movement offers an intriguing glimpse of how this might be done.
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Bernard Marr is an international best-selling author, popular keynote speaker, futurist, and strategic business and technology advisor to governments and corporations. He helps companies improve their business performance, use data more intelligently and understand the impact of new technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data, blockchains and the Internet of Things. Why not connect with Bernard on Twitter (@bernardmarr), LinkedIn (https://uk.linkedin.com/in/bernardmarr) or Instagram (bernard.marr)?
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