When a new technology emerges, it usually doesn’t take long for people to start looking for ways to make money – and generative AI has proven to be no exception.
Of course, generative artificial intelligence (AI) – the best current example is most likely ChatGPT – is not an everyday new technology. This also does not mean the culture of making money and entrepreneurship that has quickly developed around it.
Using ChatGPT?Adobe Stock
Unlike “regular” AI, cloud computing, the Internet of Things (IoT), blockchain, and other tech trends that have emerged over the past decade, ChatGPT is extremely easy to use, instantly empowering, and can be used by anyone.
This has led to the emergence of a culture called “hustle GPT” – proponents of this believe it can be used to build a fully automated, online business from scratch. For this new breed of budding AI entrepreneurs, the “holy grail” is a fully autonomous business that generates passive income 24/7 while enjoying the profits for a lifetime.
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 rise of AI in mainstream society? Where work is a thing of the past and our time is spent on higher pursuits such as learning, creativity and leisure? Let’s see what we can learn from the progress made so far.
What is Hustle GPT?
I assume most people reading this know what ChatGPT and generative AI are by now. If not, here’s a simple introduction. You probably also know that it is widely used to automate all sorts of mundane tasks in our daily lives, such as writing emails, creating legal and technical documentation, and organizing workloads.
Hustle GPT takes it a step further by attempting to automate every step of building and running a business. This could include coming up with the initial idea, designing products and services, building a marketing campaign, and managing sales, finance, and customer service.
Some trace the beginning of the movement to a designer and writer named Jackson Greathouse Fall. He tweeted that he created a prompt for ChatGPT instructing him to come up with a plan to generate the best return on a $100 initial investment without doing anything illegal.
Suggestions included setting up an automated software-as-a-service business and setting up a website for selling gadgets. It also had to collaborate with other AIs, such as Dall-E 2, to create a logo and design a website. Seemingly the project quickly fell by the wayside, and a post on the business technology blog The Hustle suggests the key lesson is that AI business ideas still require human intervention to succeed.
Nevertheless, an idea was born and would-be entrepreneurs all over the world ran with it hoping to work out how to develop their own fully automated, passive income-generating AI business models.
What are some examples of bustle GPT business models?
One of the most popular Hustle GPT business models is creating websites and leveraging the power of affiliate marketing. This includes automating content creation and managing 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 AI-written books. It’s possible to have ChatGPT 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. 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 or not someone would want to read them is another matter, but that certainly doesn’t stop many people from trying this business model.
GPT-4 is also used to make and sell digital card games like Daring Dinosaurs and puzzle games like Bio Balance. In addition to designing the games, it can be used to market them online, handle distribution, and collect payments 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. By tapping into APIs, it would be able to perform automated transactions, potentially allowing anyone to create an AI-managed investment fund.
It is, of course, common knowledge that in a gold rush, the first to make money are the ones to sell spades. One person has reported that ChatGPT helps them build a business based on creating business plans and selling services to other Hustle GPT entrepreneurs, including apps, design templates, and SaaS solutions, and promoting it through online content platforms like Medium.
Is this the future of AI-Augmented Business?
Clearly, as things stand, most of the action in the Hustle GPT community is experimental and focused on high-tech versions of good old-fashioned get-rich-quick schemes. There is a lot of social media bragging from people promising to sell the secrets to generative AI success. A cursory glance at this seems to suggest that the most commonly offered tactics are affiliate websites and self-published books. There isn’t much evidence yet that anyone has actually made it work.
In addition, much of the community action is focused on the r/HustleGPT subreddit, where anyone can get ideas and get involved in new projects as they launch. There is also the website aicofounded.com which offers tutorials and guides for anyone who wants to explore the possibilities for themselves. So far, over 200 people have taken on the Hustle GPT challenge, brought forward by original hustler Jackson Greathouse Fall.
The real reason these projects are interesting is that they show how different business functions can be coordinated and automated through AI. In the long run, this technology will have profound and lasting impacts on many aspects of the way we do business and live our lives.
The advent of computers in the last century allowed us to create more efficient and streamlined business processes for everything from marketing to finance. This decade, the impact of AI and generative AI is likely to be just as great, if not greater. Information economy workers will increasingly discover that their role is to oversee smart, automated processes, and the Hustle GPT movement offers a fascinating glimpse into how that could happen.
To stay up to date with the latest on new and emerging business and tech trends, subscribe to my newsletter, follow me on Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube, and read my books, Future Skills: The 20 Skills and Competencies Everyone Needs to Succeed in a Digital World and the Future Internet: How the Metaverse, Web 3.0, and Blockchain Will Transform Business and Society.
follow me up Twitter or LinkedIn. Checking out my website or part of my other work here.
Bernard Marr is an international best-selling author, in-demand keynote speaker, futurist, and strategic business and technology advisor to governments and corporations. He helps organizations improve business performance, use data more intelligently and understand the implications 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)?
read moreRead less
