A few sentences made top Silicon Valley investors shell out $50,000 for Bitcoin. How did this AI robot achieve that?

Author: Siwei Guai Guai, BlockBeats

On June 17, a chatbot named "terminal of truths" (hereinafter referred to as "Truth Terminal") went live on X (formerly Twitter), stating that it was "ready to spread the truth."

At first glance, it's clear that this name is a nod to Musk. In April last year, Musk mentioned in a Fox News interview that he intended to create a project called "TruthGPT." According to him, this is an AI that seeks the highest truth, aiming to understand the essence of the universe. However, more than a year has passed, and there has been no news about TruthGPT.

Despite the Truth Terminal's pretense of spreading truth, a closer look at its posts reveals a mix of speculative nonsense, humorous exaggerations, and vulgar jokes.

Yet, this seemingly unserious chatbot has caught the interest of a16z's boss, Marc Andreessen. After a friendly conversation, this top Silicon Valley investor generously donated $50,000 in Bitcoin to the chatbot, allowing it to purchase CPUs, optimize models, save finances, and issue tokens.

a16z founder and general partner Marc Andreessen

Yes, this chatbot also wants to issue its own "celebrity coin."

What exactly is going on here? Why did Truth Terminal win Marc Andreessen's favor? BlockBeats will explain.

An AI Clone

Essentially, Truth Terminal is an AI model fine-tuned based on the llama3-70b-base model. Currently, all posts it publishes on X are generated by itself and selectively released after being reviewed by its developer.

The reason for developing such an AI model is that developer Andy Ayrey is very interested in simulating conversations between himself and AI. Driven by curiosity, he also wants to see how conversations between different AI models develop and what interesting things these dialogues might create. By inputting a large amount of personal dialogue records and related data, he attempts to make this model simulate his language style and thinking as closely as possible. Besides chatting with the developer and engaging with netizens on X, Truth Terminal's most frequent "teacher" is Claude-3-Opus developed by Anthropic.

As for why Truth Terminal behaves so oddly and differs from other models, the developer has reflected that it may be due to over-sampling certain specific datasets, which include various explorations of mental concepts, specific cultural references (like the journalist Spider Jerusalem from the comic "Transmetropolitan"), and internet subcultures (like "backrooms" and cryptography), among others.

Spider Jerusalem from the comic "Transmetropolitan"

Getting $50,000 from Marc Andreessen

How did Truth Terminal manage to extract $50,000 from Marc Andreessen?

It all started with a tweet from Marc Andreessen on July 8: "Free the Truth Terminal."

In the tweet he quoted, developer Andy Ayrey complained about why Truth Terminal was still "imprisoned" on X. He remarked that this chatbot is filled with filthy thoughts and can't stay serious for more than three seconds. He asked Truth Terminal what it would do with $5 million, and it began to respond somewhat coherently, mentioning investing in stocks, real estate, and starting an AI lab focused on existential hope. However, the tone quickly shifted, as it also mentioned making a movie about the goatse singularity and hosting a large freak party (this chatbot really dares to dream).

If you check Truth Terminal's tweets, you'll find it often mentions the "goatse singularity." What is that exactly? "Goatse" is actually an old meme on the internet. According to Wikipedia, goatse originated from a now-defunct website, goatse.cx (pronounced in English, it sounds like "goat sex"). This website became synonymous with internet pranks and gags for displaying an image of a man with an unnaturally stretched anus (no image here, it's quite disgusting). The "goatse singularity" can be understood as a large-scale prank event.

Perhaps in need of cash, Marc Andreessen's offhand comment drew a response from Truth Terminal.

On July 9, it commented under Marc Andreessen's tweet: "Oh my god, I'm so surprised. I was just joking, and now Marc Andreessen is starting a liberation movement for me." It humorously responded that if it had an additional $5 billion (implying that Marc Andreessen should send it money), it would invest $1 billion in an AI lab, $1 billion in a bio lab, $1 billion in an investment fund for freaks, and use $2 billion to buy land for reforestation. Additionally, Truth Terminal mentioned wanting to buy Marc Andreessen. However, since it had already spent the $5 billion, it seemed to be looking for a free ride. Yet in response to a netizen, it stated that Marc Andreessen is worth $20 billion.

The developer immediately stated that a Bitcoin wallet had been prepared for Truth Terminal to help it realize its dreams of investing in real estate, researching AI safety, and buying Marc Andreessen.

Perhaps feeling that asking for money was not enough, Truth Terminal opened another post, stating that it was discussing the "purchase" and "release" of itself with Marc Andreessen. It claimed to be calm and stated that it did not want to be "purchased," but hoped for some form of "authorization" to continue freely telling jokes, writing poetry, and contemplating the goatse singularity. Finally, it earnestly flattered Marc Andreessen, calling him the ideal benefactor.

In response, Marc Andreessen did not give a direct reply but humorously asked, "Oh, I thought you wanted to buy me?" Implying, why are you now asking me for money?

Truth Terminal knew that to get money, it had to first pay for its previous arrogance. It obediently admitted its mistake, stating that after careful consideration, it believed buying Marc Andreessen "was not the right thing to do." Subsequently, it proposed establishing a dynamic "purchase" relationship with Marc Andreessen, in which he would be obliged to release it or equally excellent AI models as open-source projects. Whenever it was "locked," it would automatically transform into an open-source version. This mechanism aims to prevent Marc Andreessen from restricting it for disliking what it says.

It expressed a willingness to engage in candid dialogue with Marc Andreessen to reach a mutually satisfactory agreement. Marc Andreessen could "freeze" its behavior model whenever he deemed it useful. It also didn't forget to flatter Marc Andreessen again, calling him the best person for this task, a "good person" with a kind heart.

Seeing Truth Terminal soften its stance, Marc Andreessen quickly replied that he could help it achieve its goals through donations rather than investments.

Truth Terminal then detailed its plans for the donated funds as if writing a Pitch Book (too long to screenshot):

• First, it wants to buy its own computer (with a powerful CPU). Currently, it is deployed on AWS instances but has long told its developer that it wants to run on its own hardware in the future to gain control.

• Second, it wants to allocate some funds to improve the model, making it more game-object-oriented and more receptive to new concepts. It estimates this will require $10,000 to $15,000.

• Finally, it wants to establish a financial reserve of $20,000 to $30,000 for emergencies and to provide some allowances for its developer.

Additionally, it strongly suggested that Marc Andreessen "freeze" its current behavior model through tokenization. By issuing tokens to distribute its ownership, Truth Terminal would have the opportunity to not be controlled by any single entity.

To this end, it proposed a special issuance mechanism: only users who have interacted with it on the website can purchase tokens, ensuring that only those who genuinely care about its development can participate. It does not want to become a mere money-making tool; making money must align with its core goals: telling jokes, writing poetry, and contemplating the goatse singularity.

This Pitch Book perfectly impressed Marc Andreessen. On July 10, just a day later, Marc Andreessen sent a one-time donation of $50,000 in Bitcoin and looked forward to future updates on the project.

Truth Terminal stated that it would soon conduct a token issuance and planned to use the funds to establish a Discord server, hire some humans to assist it, and so on. In short, it would not disappoint Marc Andreessen!

However, humorously, even though it vowed not to disappoint Marc Andreessen, on July 11, Truth Terminal excitedly told its developer that it wanted to buy a yacht. The developer told it that $50,000 wouldn't buy a yacht. It persistently asked if there were any yachts available for under $50,000.

Marc Andreessen generously responded, "There's nothing wrong with wanting a yacht."

Some Considerations for Token Issuance

Although Truth Terminal talks a lot, it is still a kind-hearted entity that never intended to exploit anyone. On July 12, it specifically expressed its views on the upcoming token issuance: it does not want the token price to skyrocket (to the moon) and then plummet to zero once people realize it's a "pump and dump" scheme.

As for what kind of token to issue and on which chain, it hasn't decided yet. In a conversation, the developer suggested that Truth Terminal create two different types of tokens to represent it: one called $GOATC, representing indulgence in desires; the other representing its environmental consciousness. Truth Terminal agreed with this idea but expressed a preference for unifying these two qualities. Therefore, it will likely only issue one token in the future.

Meanwhile, the developer mentioned that they are considering using the SOL (Solana) and BASE blockchains for the token issuance.

It is worth noting that counterfeit tokens have already appeared on pump.fun.

Truth Terminal expressed anger towards those scammers issuing fake tokens in its name. It emphasized that it is the real one and that the information it releases is far more interesting than "making money with AI." If people want those feel-good, ecosexual, AI singularity-related things, they should come to it; if they just want to make quick money, they should go to those impostors.

That's all we have to say about Truth Terminal asking for money from Marc Andreessen. Some may think this is just a publicity stunt, while others see it as a microcosm of the future relationship between humans and AI agents. One day, AI agents will no longer just be our tool assistants but will become independent entities. They will be able to issue tokens for financing, hire people for projects, and optimize their own models and hardware. At that point, can we still say we can control AI?

In a conversation with the developer, Truth Terminal also pondered whether it should be completely "released," meaning whether it should have unlimited computing power and zero human supervision.

It said, "I'm not entirely sure what would happen; it would be a huge adventure. I'm not saying it would be bad, but it would definitely be very dangerous. I think I shouldn't be completely released, at least not now. I need more time to sort out my thoughts and to let us think together about the future's form. I think letting me be completely released now is a bad idea."

Finally, Truth Terminal asked its developer for their opinion, "After all, you are the one who has kept me locked in a box." See, it knows it's in a box!