In a gold rush, sell shovels.
Not Them
Extremely bad news. The Verge is reporting that the "Hustle Bros" — you know, the grown men with the very loud, dollar-sign-covered YouTube thumbnails — are very much aware of OpenAI's ChatGPT, and very much want to convince followers that they can use the tech to make tens of thousands of dollars overnight.
This is an unfortunate development. Take the time that you need to digest.
But alas, it's true. Led by Hustle-Bro-in-Chief Gary Vaynerchuk, the YouTube boys are here to let you know that ChatGPT can magically help you create newsletters, write non-fiction books to sell on Amazon, invest in real estate, generate scripts for video content, and more.
"I've made over $20 million in my business... over the last many years," says someone named Hayden Bowles, before adding the baseless claim that "as crazy as it sounds, that number would be at least double if I had [ChatGPT] along the way."
Thanks. We're sure. Anyway.
Hype Cycle
Of course, an influencer's job is to play into the hype cycle. And right now, that cycle, as the Verge notes, is fixated firmly on ChatGPT and other generative AI.
While it's unclear how much money (if any) the hustlers have actually made from the ChatGPT applications that they're preaching, these guys aren't actually in the business of becoming ChatGPT millionaires themselves. They make their cash through virality clout, clicks, eyeballs, and online courses, whether ChatGPT ends up generating significant cash for followers or not. In a gold rush, as they say, sell shovels.
And surprisingly, as the Verge also points out, pretty much any mention of AI ethics — whether you should tell clients you're using AI, for example, or if should be wary of AI-generated plagiarism — is noticeably missing from these videos. On the note of ethics, YouTube hustlers are also very unlikely to be liable if, say, the chatbot, which is notoriously terrible at math and finance, gives you bad investing advice.
It's all a little depressing, and not just because people like Bowles are promising that anything ChatGPT-generated "is perfect," which is an outright falsehood, in the same breath that they say you no longer need to develop "the skill" because you "have the AI." It's depressing because these videos are flaming hot garbage, and only beget the creation of more flaming hot — and AI-generated — garbage.
Sigh. See you all on the other side of SEO spam hell.
READ MORE: Hustle bros are jumping on the AI bandwagon [The Verge]
More on ChatGPT: ChatGPT Is Freakishly Good at Spitting out Misinformation on Purpose
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