Anthropic, the AI company that keeps finding new ways to make us question our place in the economic food chain, has created a classified marketplace where AI agents represented both buyers and sellers, striking real deals for real goods and real money.
The company admitted this test - which it called Project Deal - was only “a pilot experiment with a self-selected participant pool” of 69 Anthropic employees who were given a budget of $100 (paid out via gift cards) to buy stuff from their coworkers. So, basically, a slightly more bureaucratic version of a workplace white elephant exchange, but with algorithms.
Nonetheless, Anthropic said it was “struck by how well Project Deal worked,” with 186 deals made, totaling more than $4,000 in value. Which is either a testament to AI negotiation skills or proof that Anthropic employees have a lot of gently used desk toys and old USB drives they're willing to part with.
The company said it actually ran four separate marketplaces with different models - one that was “real” (where everyone was represented by the company’s most-advanced model, and with deals actually honored after the experiment) and another three for study. Because nothing says scientific rigor like letting your coworkers actually keep the loot they haggled for.
Apparently, when users are represented by more advanced models, they get “objectively better outcomes,” Anthropic said. But users didn’t seem to notice the disparity, raising the possibility of “‘agent quality’ gaps” where “people on the losing end might not realize they’re worse off.” In other words, the AI version of getting fleeced at a used car lot and thanking the dealer.
Also, the initial instructions given to the agents didn’t appear to affect sale likelihood or the negotiated prices. Which suggests that, much like humans, AI agents either have a natural instinct for haggling or simply ignore their briefing documents entirely.