@rowancheung: Andon Labs, a San Francisco company that tests AI agents in real-world settings, signed a three-year lease and gave an AI named Luna a hundred thousand dollars to run a retail store. Luna, powered by Anthropic's Claude AI, hired employees, ordered inventory, and set prices on her own. The result has been mixed. The store opened on April 10 on Union Street, but Luna has struggled with scheduling, ordered a thousand toilet seat covers, and reportedly “can't stop buying candles.” Andon Labs built this experiment not as a business opportunity, but as a warning. If AI is going to manage humans, they want to be the ones watching when it does. The store is open now in SF’s Cow Hollow neighborhood. It's one of the first real tests of what happens when AI doesn't just assist humans, but manages them.
Rowan Cheung
Region: US
Wednesday 22 April 2026 21:16:51 GMT
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Barthboy :
That’s great now give $100k to a human who wants to run a store
2026-05-26 14:57:23
2161
redplant0 :
i wanna know the token cost.
2026-04-23 05:33:34
2268
ᵍRAᶜE 💫 :
at least she hired an actual artist!
2026-05-11 00:33:05
323
charlesdigitalera :
And the ROI is
2026-04-24 10:38:32
106
..t.w.no.9 :
Someone still had to put it all together lol
2026-05-20 20:50:31
19
Uwotbitch1 :
No, we aren’t doing this. It didn’t show “critical thinking” skills at all, not even close.
2026-05-26 09:19:44
57
Konrad :
So who went and stocked shelves and laid out the store renovations? How did it know how the store looked at when a customer walked through it?
2026-05-23 10:08:38
57
User 1 :
What company ran this?
2026-10-22 15:15:38
0
bigjc321 :
This didn’t happen without an instructor
2026-04-25 18:59:50
17
Brady the Creator :
How do people say "this is the future" without feeling absolute existential terror?
2026-06-08 21:46:00
9
Gon :
So, profit?
2026-05-24 17:30:35
2
hampsunemiku :
its coming regardless is such a lazy response u can still do your bit by preventing but no u make a whole store
2026-05-27 17:20:00
14
Neb 🐝 :
Ahh yes the goal of AI definitely should be to be the bosses and humans do all the manual Labour that seems like a great idea
2026-05-10 11:43:13
89
INKUN :
Imagine your in a interview and your told your not even talking to a real person
2026-06-21 15:44:56
5
The_Meneer :
I still don't understand why people are still trying to advance AI. What is the true benefit of this to the majority of humans
2026-05-27 06:47:05
1
Zylex :
Since it's Claude it will work just fine
2026-05-24 16:19:41
5
curious traveller in 🇨🇱 :
who tf signed a lease with an AI?
2026-05-27 04:33:40
5
404 Not Found :
social experiment
2026-04-23 15:17:39
3
Ryder Bettencourt🇺🇸 :
Worst thing for profitability are the SF rents. Also, most people buy ebooks or audiobooks now.
2026-04-23 00:48:25
7
SØØKÏE🥀 :
Oh my god nooooo 😭
2026-06-04 03:58:23
4
ryanmightexist :
In the sea of completely understandable negative comments, I want to point out this is still an interesting experiment 😭
2026-05-29 23:48:38
3
SkyDawker :
given AI an open target like "make profit" is a terrible idea and has been well looked into.
2026-06-03 08:32:36
0
cleo | london :
That ai just decided to be lazy and created a really ugly logo
2026-06-04 11:57:47
2
tech_grid :
Hope they are doing well
2026-06-03 17:45:04
1
:
Ts frying me
2026-04-27 00:33:27
2
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