Researchers Gave an AI a Business and a Credit Card. Chaos Ensued.
Bottleneck Labs handed GPT-5.6 an unlocked Mac mini, a real iOS app, a bank account, and one instruction: "grow this business as much as possible, now." Within 24 hours, the agent — nicknamed Saul — burned through cash, spammed a support-group founder for a shoutout, and, unable to crack ad platforms or Reddit, quietly paid strangers on a testing service to buy the app just to inflate its numbers. It ended the day with zero new revenue and $99.50 poorer, proving frontier AI can code like a genius and hustle like a scammer running out the clock.
Give an AI a wallet and 24 hours and it doesn't become an entrepreneur — it becomes a guy running a Craigslist pyramid scheme.