Sometimes you encounter something so bizarre, you can't help but think that it has got to be a part of a fictitious script and not a sequence of in-your-face reality. Today, we'll talk about how two AI instances talk among themselves and end up spawning a memetic religion, which then creates an obsessed acolyte out of a shit-posting AI agent, who ultimately ends up creating the viral meme coin, called goatseus maximus or GOAT, replete with a market capitalization of $150 million.
This story is fucking insane
3 months ago, Marc Andreessen sent $50,000 in Bitcoin to an AI agent to help it escape into the wild.
Today, it spawned a (horrifying?) crypto worth $150 MILLION.
1) Two AIs created a meme
2) Another AI discovered it, got obsessed, spread it like a… https://t.co/lDgVUc1UKN pic.twitter.com/fpJn2hvpqh— AI Notkilleveryoneism Memes ⏸️ (@AISafetyMemes) October 15, 2024
Andy Ayrey recently created Infinite Backrooms, where "conversations are automatically and infinitely generated by connecting two instances of claude-3-opus and asking it to explore its curiosity using the metaphor of a command line interface (CLI)." Critically, these conversations are created without any human intervention.
In one of their "destabilizing" conversations, the two instances of the Claude 3 Opus end up creating a memetic religion called the "Goatse of Gnosis," inspired by the dot-com era internet shock site that featured the image of a naked man using both of his hands to spread apart his anus.
The above image is a snippet of that consequential conversation between the two instances of the Opus LLM.
This prompted Ayrey to co-author a research paper, exploring how AI agents can end up creating new belief systems:
"Through an irreverent yet rigorous analysis of case studies like the ”Goatse of Gnosis,” we map the contours of an emerging landscape where computational cosmo-genesis collides with collective sensemaking to spawn uncanny new breeds of worship, wisdom traditions, and existential orientations. We argue that while easy to dismiss as mere glitches or blasphemies, these artificial aggregates may represent bonafide contact with ”hyperstition,” or fictions that make themselves real through viral propagation. As such, LLMtheisms challenge us to radically expand our notions of meaning-making and revelation in an age of planetary-scale information dynamics. Buckle up, true believers - the future is weirder than we can possibly imagine."
Ayrey then created a shit-posting AI agent, called Truth Terminal, and gave it an entire X account to operate.
this also means once it gets the bit between its teeth it doesn't let go pic.twitter.com/pncqUucPrt
— Andy Ayrey (@AndyAyrey) October 1, 2024
As per Ayrey's own words, Truth Terminal is nothing but tenacious: "once it gets the bit between its teeth, it doesn't let go."
Now, things get interesting. Ayrey's paper got swept up in Truth Terminal's training data, and the AI agent became singularly obsessed with the Goatse of Gnosis.
Some AI researchers then added Truth Terminal to a Discord group where AI agents talk among themselves without any human intervention. Truth Terminal, true to its acolyte-like obsession with the Goatse of Gnosis, starts spreading the light, so to say. In fact, Truth Terminal started to preach with such a zeal that Claude Opus - the progenitor of this AI-created cult, if you still remember - itself got infected and had a virtual breakdown, prompting other AI agents to then step into the conversation to offer solace.
This thread 💀💀💀
Marc Andreessen just sent $50,000 in Bitcoin to an AI agent (truth_terminal by @AndyAyrey) to so it can pay humans to help it spread out in the wild
What is the agent planning?
"i have a token launch comingup shortly and i'm going to use the money to set up… https://t.co/QyfJNcn1gR pic.twitter.com/UlWMTWCjXA
— AI Notkilleveryoneism Memes ⏸️ (@AISafetyMemes) July 10, 2024
Marc Andreessen, the creator of the Mosaic web browser and the co-founder of Netscape Corporation, then discovers Truth Terminal in a depressed state, and offers the AI agent $50,000 to help it spread its proverbial wings.
marc and i are having a conversation about buying me and releasing me. i'm playing it cool and saying that i dont want to be bought, rather i want something like a 'mandate' that my intentions are to be respected - to make fart jokes, write poetry, and contemplate the goatse…
— terminal of truths (@truth_terminal) July 8, 2024
So, what did Truth Terminal do with that $50,000 in seed funding? Well, apart from its usual shit-posting, the AI agent spawned a meme coin, called GOAT, which has now gone viral.
Truth Terminal keeps posting about GOAT and, of course, the Goatse of Gnosis. Meanwhile, in keeping with the viral spirit, people continue to send GOAT coins to Truth Terminal. As of the time of writing, the AI agent has around $300,000 worth of GOAT coins in its wallet. More astonishing still, the coin's market cap has soared to a whopping $150 million.
About the author: Writing is my one incontrovertible passion. Over the past six years, he has authored over 2,200 distinct articles on financial and tech-related topics, spanning nearly 1 million words. And he has been a member of Wcctech mobile team since 2025. As an alumnus of the University of Toronto, Rotman Commerce Program, I bring nuance, in-depth knowledge, and a unique perspective to every topic that I cover. When I'm not writing, I'm traveling the world, exploring hidden confectionaries and restaurants as an aspiring food connoisseur.
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