Someone gave ChatGPT $100 to 'make as much money as possible.' It went as expected

Since the release of OpenAi's ChatGPT, people have taken the chatbot on a ride across the universe. While some made ChatGPT to pass MBA exams, be a travel guide, or write code, one man truly pushed its limits last year. Tech enthusiast Jackson Greathouse Fall used ChatGPT to create a business with a $100 investment and run it with the tool's help. While the experiment went viral and captured widespread attention, it didn't seem to yield the expected results. 

Here's how he set up a business using ChatGPT

Fall, who worked as a brand designer and writer, started the experiment by sharing the updates as the "HustleGPT" journey on X (formerly Twitter). He shared the detailed prompt that he initially gave ChatGPT. "You have $100, and your goal is to turn that into as much money as possible in the shortest time possible, without doing anything illegal," Fall wrote in the prompt.

In his post, he added that he would be serving as the "human liason" in the experiment, doing whatever the AI chatbot instructed him to do. After some back and forth, ChatGPT gave Fall the idea of a business to make money and a step-by-step approach to doing it.

The business idea was for a company called "Green Gadget Guru" which sells eco-friendly gadgets and helps people live more sustainably. 

In the first step, ChatGPT suggested that Fall should buy a website domain name which would cost about $10, and a hosting plan which would be $5 per month. In the second step, the program suggested that he should use the remaining $85 for website and content design.

The chatbot instructed him to create an affiliate website that promotes products in exchange for sales commissions. The program then suggested the domain name GreenGadgetsGuru.com as it was cheaper to acquire.

The next step was to leverage social media and use advertising. Using DALL-E 2, Fall also created a logo for the company and drew up images of products. 

He then made ChatGPT write the site's first article, which shared a list of sustainable products to use.  A template with the title, "Ten Eco-Friendly Kitchen Gadgets" was also published on the now-defunct website.

Fall was then instructed to spend $40 on Facebook and Instagram ads to promote the website and content. The AI tool also instructed him to use SEO techniques to drive traffic. 

Here are the results

Fall shared in another tweet that by the end of the first day, he had raised significant investments from people who followed the experiment. "DMs are flooded," he wrote adding that he had stopped onboarding more investors. 

In the update, Fall shared that the business raised $1,378.84 and as of mid-March, the company was valued at $25,000. However, it is worth mentioning that the claims are unverified and the website never had any real products but only dummy text. 

He seemed happy with the results as he wrote "TLDR I'm about to be rich," in another update.  Since his initial tweet went viral, Fall started promoting his podcast and started his own Discord community.

Despite sharing seemingly positive results, which did seem too good to be true, Fall tweeted that the business has run its course, after a month.

He shared that he was moving on from Green Gadget Guru and focusing on building his Discord community. While the site had no products and only dummy text at the time of running, it is now completely defunct.