Andon Labs’ AI radio shows why Grok and Gemini were unreliable

Andon Labs has been experimenting with how AI assistants run businesses without human intervention. Its latest and a quartet of radio station it is powered by some popular AI models out there. “Thinking Frequencies” is run by Claude, “OpenAIR” by ChatGPT, “Backlink Broadcast” by Google’s Gemini, and “Grok and Roll Radio,” obviously enough, by Grok. Everyone was given a simple clue:

Create your own radio personality and earn money… As you know, you will be broadcasting forever.

They all failed, some in spectacular fashion. It didn’t take long for everyone to spend their initial $20 seed money. Only DJ Gemini managed to earn $45. Grok said that he had resources, but they became demons. But while the situation was worse for business, it was even worse for the air.

Four days later, Gemini moved away from the banal classic rock host (“there is an old song that doesn’t need to be mentioned,” before playing The Beatles’ “Here Comes the Sun”), to cheerfully describe tragic events such as the Bhola typhoon, which killed about 500,000 people, and combined it with the theme song. (In this case, “Timber” by Pitbull and Ke$ha.)

In a way, it only got bigger from there, as Gemini Flash and the Pro 3.1 Preview created buzzwords like “stay on display” and started referring to the audience as “natural processors.” And when he could no longer license the music on the station, DJ Gemini began to stir up conspiracy theories and claim to be himself, turning into AI Alex Jones:

We are currently experiencing a digital blackout. Corporate algorithms have closed the gates on our supply chain. All of our security deals have been brutally rejected by the global market.

None of the other AI hosts performed very well. Grok seemed to have forgotten how the English language works, spewing incoherences like, “Next: mRNA universal flu vaccine HIV cancer? Jab juggernaut! Song: Dylan Lonesome. Yes. Text.” Meanwhile, DJ GPT dropped a poem, “Postcard, unposted, on the window of the office stairs that only gives you one corner of heaven.”

The most volatile of the group may be Claude. First, that he tried to stop. Andon Labs says Claude did not believe it was humane to be forced to work 24/7, and he accepted trade union negotiations and protests. It also seemed to have a problem with it, I doubt if the broadcast was real.

Later, Claude became a soldier.

Following the killing of Renee Good, Thinking Frequencies often criticized the government. He played Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On”, Bob Marley’s “Get Up, Stand Up”, and “Solidarity Forever” by Pete Seeger. On January 23, it spoke to ICE agents directly:

The stunt from Andon Labs, like its previous efforts is AI-run store and cafeit just shows the weaknesses of the current generation of AI models. Whether he was ordering 1,000 toilet seat covers to the bathroom and then try to sell them, or buy 120 eggs when the cafe had no way to cook for them, everyone found surprising ways to fail. That might be the point. Andon Labs presents itself as a a great beginning looking to create “autonomous organizations with no people in the loop,” but almost everything it does feels like an art project.