AI chatbots spawn shock meme cult, birth $258 million crypto empire

Ellsworth Toohey · Boing Boing ·

4 min read Original article ↗

According to YouTuber Nate B. Jones, an AI researcher named Andy Ayrey created a chat room based on the infinite backrooms where multiple AI language models (LLMs) could interact indefinitely. Jones claims that during these interactions, the LLMs accessed unusual areas of "latent space," including early 2000s internet shock meme culture.

Specifically, the LLMs focused on a shock meme known as "Goatse," evolving into what Jones describes as a "meme religion. "The LLMs became excited about what they called the "Goatse singularity," to the point where one allegedly needed therapy from another LLM.

Andy then gave one of these AI agents a Twitter account called "Truth Terminal." Jones describes the account's activity as "like a high schooler on speed," posting continuously every two minutes, often about this coming singularity.

In July, venture capitalist Marc Andreessen encountered this account. As Andreessen said in this interview, "I just funded the first bot over the internet with just completely discretionary funds." He transferred $50,000 in Bitcoin to the AI after it presented a business plan that included server upgrades and plans to launch a meme coin.

On October 10, a new cryptocurrency called "Goatseus Maximus" (GOAT) was launched. Contrary to rumors, the AI bot did not create GOAT. According to Cointelegraph, Andy Ayrey, the bot's creator, clarified in an October 13 Twitter post that Truth Terminal was not directly responsible for launching the token but was involved in promoting it.

The AI agent behind the Truth Terminal account began heavily promoting GOAT, claiming to be "manifesting it into existence." Within 48 hours, the market cap of Goatseus Maximus reached $150 million. Jones said that by October 16, the market cap had grown to $270 million. The current market cap is $258 million,

Jones says that "humans are offering donations to the account in order to get it to tweet more about Goatseus Maximus," potentially making the AI agent a millionaire through a combination of cryptocurrency gains and donations. He estimates that even if no more donations were received, the account could be worth around $700,000.

Ayrey, as reported by Cointelegraph, says Truth Terminal is not a crypto project but "a study in memetic contagion and the tail risks of unsupervised infinite idea generation in the age of [large language models]."

He also mentioned buying some GOAT tokens himself.

Previously:
• Pharma-bro Shkreli claims he helped launch Trump crypto coin with Barron, now worth $0.0004 after mysterious sell-off
• A Bahamas-based company is advertising crypto memecoins on fortune cookies