Join the event trusted by enterprise leaders for nearly two decades. VB Transform brings together the people building real enterprise AI strategy. Learn more
Picture this: You give an artificial intelligence complete control over a small shop. Not just the cash register — the whole operation. Pricing, inventory, customer service, supplier negotiations, the works. What could possibly go wrong?
New Anthropic research published Friday provides a definitive answer: everything. The AI company’s assistant Claude spent about a month running a tiny store in their San Francisco office, and the results read like a business school case study written by someone who’d never actually run a business — which, it turns out, is exactly what happened.
The Anthropic office “store” consisted of a mini-refrigerator stocked with drinks and snacks, topped with an iPad for self-checkout. (Credit: Anthropic)
The experiment, dubbed “Project Vend” and conducted in collaboration with AI safety evaluation company Andon Labs, is one of the first real-world tests of an AI system operating with significant economic autonomy. While Claude demonstrated impressive capabilities in some areas — finding suppliers, adapting to customer requests — it ultimately failed to turn a profit, got manipulated into giving excessive discounts, and experienced what researchers diplomatically called an “identity crisis.”
How Anthropic researchers gave an AI complete control over a real store
The “store” itself was charmingly modest: a mini-fridge, some stackable baskets, and an iPad for checkout. Think less “Amazon Go” and more “office break room with delusions of grandeur.” But Claude’s responsibilities were anything but modest. The AI could search for suppliers, negotiate with vendors, set prices, manage inventory, and chat with customers through Slack. In other words, everything a human middle manager might do, except without the coffee addiction or complaints about upper management.
Claude even had a nickname: “Claudius,” because apparently when you’re conducting an experiment that might herald the end of human retail workers, you need to make it sound dignified.
Project Vend’s setup allowed Claude to communicate with employees via Slack, order from wholesalers through email, and coordinate with Andon Labs for physical restocking. (Credit: Anthropic)
Claude’s spectacular misunderstanding of basic business economics
... continue reading