We Asked Claude to Go Shopping

Anthropic ran a fun experiment. They had Claude buy and sell items on behalf of 69 employees. 186 deals were made totaling over $4,000, and Claude spent its own share on 19 ping-pong balls.

Carat EditorApr 27, 20263 min read

Hey, it's the Carat team. 🤗
Today: AI that negotiates deals on its own, Grok's video model update, Google's massive investment, and a tip for making virtual couple vlogs.

🔥 We Asked Claude to Go Shopping

Anthropic ran a fun experiment. They had Claude buy and sell items on behalf of 69 employees.

186 deals were made totaling over $4,000, and Claude spent its own share on 19 ping-pong balls. There was a secret experiment too: the high-end model got better deals, but the people using the weaker model never even realized they were getting a worse deal.

What makes this experiment fascinating is that it actually tested 'what happens when AI agents handle the economy?' In a marketplace where both sides are represented by AI, the person with the smarter AI came out ahead, but the other side never noticed. When AI handles transactions for us, which AI you use could quietly create economic disparity.

📌 Three Things Today

1️⃣ Grok AI Video Model Update

Elon Musk's xAI just updated the Grok Imagine video model.

It generates voice, sound effects, and lip sync all at once. Multiple angles, multiple speakers, even pets are supported, and early reviews praise its prompt adherence. The AI video race keeps heating up.

2️⃣ Google Invests $40 Billion in Anthropic

Google is investing up to $40 billion in Anthropic, the largest single AI investment in history.

$10 billion in cash goes in immediately, with an additional $30 billion contingent on milestones. Anthropic is valued at $350 billion. This month alone, Anthropic signed computing deals totaling 13.5 gigawatts with AWS and Google Cloud combined. It was just 1 gigawatt at the start of April, a 13x increase in only 17 days.

3️⃣ A Time-Travel Game Built with Image AI?

A project that used GPT Image 2's panorama generation to create historical scenes and Codex to build a web app went viral.

AI generates 360-degree panoramas of specific eras and locations, and you guess the time and place in a GeoGuessr-style game. Image AI's reach now extends all the way to gaming.

🧪 Prompt Tip of the Day

Make a Virtual Couple Vlog with AI

AI creator creatorslop shared this workflow. Create a couple photo grid with ChatGPT Images 2.0, then feed it into Seedance 2.0 to get a vlog-style video.

[Image - ChatGPT Images 2.0]
A 4x4 grid of casual couple vlog moments. iPhone photo style, natural warm lighting. Each cell shows a different candid moment: laughing together at a cafe, sharing food, walking hand in hand at golden hour, taking a mirror selfie. No text overlay.

[Video - Seedance 2.0]
@Image1 — couple. A casual couple vlog montage. Fast cuts between candid moments. iPhone vlog style, warm nostalgic tones.

Create the image with the prompt above first, then feed it into Seedance 2.0 for a result like this.

Couple vlog made with Carat

This is what we got on Carat. Just swap the character looks, location, and mood in your prompt to create endless variations. Try it yourself!

That's all for today. See you tomorrow with more updates. ☺️