Summary:
A viral experiment used GPT-4 to turn $100 into a $25,000-valued business in days through affiliate marketing.
The founder faced severe psychological effects of virality, including stress and burnout, leading to the business's collapse.
The case highlights the limits of generative AI for sustainable entrepreneurship, as it can't handle long-term strategy or compliance.
Investor interest was driven by social engagement metrics, not solid business fundamentals, echoing past digital bubbles like crypto and NFTs.
The story serves as a cautionary tale about AI hype and the risks of rapid online fame without a sustainable business model.
In early 2023, a social media experiment set out to test whether artificial intelligence could launch a viable business with just $100. It quickly became a viral sensation. Within 24 hours, the project reportedly turned a modest investment into over $1,300 in revenue. Days later, it attracted investors and was briefly valued at $25,000.
The story, led by digital creator Jackson Greathouse Fall and powered by OpenAI’s GPT-4, captured the imagination of tech optimists and casual observers alike. Onlookers hailed it as a bold demonstration of generative AI’s potential to fuel low-cost entrepreneurship. But within months, the buzz faded. The business shuttered quietly. And the founder disappeared from public view.
I gave GPT-4 a budget of $100 and told it to make as much money as possible. I'm acting as its human liaison, buying anything it says to. Do you think it'll be able to make smart investments and build an online business? Follow along 👀 pic.twitter.com/zu4nvgibiK — Jazz Fall (@JazzFall) March 15, 2023
Two years later, Greathouse Fall has resurfaced, offering a more complex picture of what unfolded behind the viral headlines. In a personal reflection posted on X, he described the experience as “one of the darkest periods” of his life, citing the psychological toll of rapid internet fame, investor pressure, and his own unpreparedness.
Viral Success Built on Borrowed Credibility
The venture, dubbed Green Gadget Guru, was entirely conceived by GPT-4. Greathouse Fall gave the system a $100 budget and instructions to generate maximum profit. The AI’s recommendations were strikingly detailed: build a sustainability-themed affiliate marketing site, generate a logo using DALL·E, and spend $40 on social media ads to drive traffic.
The idea wasn’t new—affiliate marketing has long been a low-barrier entry point for online entrepreneurs—but the speed at which the project gained traction was. Posts documenting the experiment on his official X profile went viral, with followers growing by the tens of thousands. Within a day, the site claimed to have generated four figures in revenue, though no independent financial data was provided.
Exactly two years ago, I posted a thread that went so viral, it changed my life forever. I got over 25 million views, more than 100,000 new followers in a few whirlwind days, and until recently I actually thought it was the worst thing that ever happened to me. Looking back, it… — Jazz Fall (@JazzFall) March 15, 2025
What followed was a digital gold rush. Venture capitalists and angel investors reportedly expressed interest, and Green Gadget Guru was valued at $25,000 in a matter of days, largely based on social engagement metrics. But the excitement was short-lived.
Flash in the Pan, or Glimpse of the Future?
The company’s decline was as swift as its rise. Updates slowed. Revenue streams dried up. And Greathouse Fall, overwhelmed by the scale of attention, eventually went offline for nearly three years. His recent post suggests the emotional and logistical strain far outweighed any financial gains.
Spin it back to March 15, 2023. I have no idea what’s about to happen. GPT-4 has just dropped, the internet is abuzz, and I want to explore an idea that wasn’t just another riff on text generation. A shower thought’s worth of inspiration, I log into Twitter and… Tick. Boom. — Jazz Fall (@JazzFall) March 15, 2025
This isn’t an isolated case. Research into the psychological effects of virality has consistently pointed to increased anxiety, burnout, and identity destabilization. A 2021 study published in Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking found that individuals who experienced rapid online visibility reported higher levels of stress and social withdrawal compared to baseline internet users.
Moreover, while the use of AI in business creation has expanded rapidly, the tools are not a replacement for the foundational work of sustainable entrepreneurship. A 2024 white paper from the MIT Center for Collective Intelligence warns against overreliance on large language models for complex business decisions. It emphasizes that while generative AI can reduce startup costs and automate content creation, it lacks the ability to navigate legal compliance, supply chains, or long-term strategy.
The Illusion of Scalability
What made Green Gadget Guru so compelling was its apparent simplicity: a single person, a hundred dollars, and an AI co-pilot. Yet beneath that viral narrative lay a more familiar pattern — online attention inflating perceived value without the foundation of a real business. For example, brand designer Jackson Greathouse Fall asked ChatGPT to turn USD 100 “into as much money as possible in the shortest time possible” and launched an affiliate-marketing site called Green Gadget Guru; the site quickly gained attention but was shut down soon after.
In a broader critique of AI enthusiasm, Le Monde highlighted the work of Emily M. Bender, a linguist, professor, and director of the Computational Linguistics Laboratory at the University of Washington. In March 2021, she co-authored the influential paper “Stochastic Parrots” with Timnit Gebru, Angelina McMillan-Major, and Margaret Mitchell — a study that warned of the limits and risks of large-scale language models, later popularized through chatbots like ChatGPT. Today, Bender remains one of the most outspoken critics of the AI industry’s unchecked optimism, denouncing what she calls its culture of “hype” in her ongoing podcast with sociologist Alex Hanna.
The story echoes past digital-era bubbles — from the cryptocurrency ICO frenzy to the NFT startups that surged and collapsed during the 2021 blockchain wave. In each case, valuations were driven more by narrative than by operational substance. Some analysts suggest that generative AI now faces a similar risk: a speculative phase where hype moves faster than practical outcomes.
Correction (November 3, 2025): A previous version of this article included a quote attributed to Professor Emily M. Bender. This quote did not accurately reflect her statements and has been removed. We regret this error.
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