In a parody, or satire, describe an alternate reality where in 2025, there is a booming investment in Artificial Stupidity, with startups raising $100B and more at $500B and more valuations. Make this parallel world seem real, although it is absurd. What would Artificial Stupidity be used for? What company will first reach Artificial General Stupidity? Which employees will be the most threatened?
##
In the parallel year 2025, the hottest sector on Wall Street is no longer AI but AS — Artificial Stupidity. The numbers are astonishing: venture firms have poured over $100 billion into AS startups, some of which already boast valuations above $500 billion. Analysts on CNBC say with a straight face that “we’ve reached peak hype,” while also urging their viewers to buy the dip.
Artificial Stupidity arose as a backlash to the relentless drive for optimization. Companies discovered that machines that always give the right answer often alienate customers who prefer the charming fallibility of human error. Retailers deploy AS chatbots that misunderstand simple questions and say things like “Please hold while I misroute your call,” which has been shown to increase brand loyalty by 17%. Airlines use AS to recreate the nostalgic chaos of overbooked flights, and e-commerce sites rely on it to make checkout processes just confusing enough to provoke impulse purchases.
The race is now on for Artificial General Stupidity (AGS) — a unified system able to display a wide spectrum of human-like cluelessness. The frontrunner is Oopsify, which promises a single platform for errors in everything from navigation to grammar to corporate strategy. Its CEO, a former hedge-fund prodigy who burned through $4 billion betting against indoor plumbing, has become a cult hero for declaring, “The future belongs to the imperfect.”
Ironically, the workforce most threatened by AS isn’t factory workers or programmers but middle managers and consultants. Machines can now reliably hold meetings that go in circles, draft 50-page slide decks that never quite answer the question, and deliver confident but wrong conclusions — all at a fraction of the cost. McKinsey has warned in a white paper titled Disruption Through Ineptitude that “up to 70% of corporate ambiguity can now be automated.”
Critics worry that once AGS arrives, no one will be able to tell whether mistakes come from the software or the boardroom. Yet markets remain bullish. As one analyst put it, “True intelligence was a bubble. The real money is in scalable confusion.”
##
How could my prompt be improved to make an even better surreal essay?
##
Here are some specific ways you could refine your prompt to coax an even richer, more surreal yet believable satirical essay:
1. Set the Tone and Genre More Clearly
Add guidance on voice, tone, and style, e.g.:
“Write it in the style of a serious business magazine feature (like The Economist or Harvard Business Review) reporting on this absurd new trend.”
This contrast — absurd content in a sober style — makes the satire sharper.
2. Request Concrete World-Building
Encourage details that anchor the surrealism in reality:
“Include names of leading AS startups, quotes from their founders, statistics from market analysts, and reactions from regulators and unions.”
These touches make the world feel like it’s actually happening.
3. Highlight Human Consequences
Ask for colorful anecdotes:
“Add brief vignettes of how ordinary people experience Artificial Stupidity in daily life — such as a self-checkout that refuses to sell you milk until you pass a quiz, or a navigation app that insists the shortest route is through a swamp.”
4. Add Rivalries and Industry Jargon
To deepen the satire, invite corporate jargon and hype:
“Describe rivalries between AS companies, the buzzwords they use in investor pitches, and the kinds of conferences and award ceremonies springing up around the trend.”
5. Widen the Lens Beyond Tech
Encourage cultural and political reactions:
“Include commentary from world leaders, economists, and ethicists — some welcoming AS as ‘democratizing mediocrity,’ others warning of a ‘race to the bottom.’”
6. Sharpen the AGS Moment
You can make the “Artificial General Stupidity” milestone more memorable:
“Describe the media frenzy the day the first company announces AGS — complete with a launch event, confetti cannons, and a demo that fails spectacularly.”
Example of a Revised Prompt
Write a satirical business-magazine feature set in an alternate 2025 where investors are pouring over $100B into “Artificial Stupidity” startups, some valued above $500B. Treat the absurd trend as if it were real: quote founders, mention rival firms and conferences, provide fake statistics and analyst forecasts.
Describe practical applications, from AS chatbots to corporate decision-making tools, and show how everyday life is reshaped. Identify the first company to claim “Artificial General Stupidity” and depict the over-the-top product launch.
Explain which jobs or industries feel most threatened. Keep the tone deadpan, as if reporting seriously on a legitimate tech boom.
Would you like me to draft a new sample essay using this improved prompt so you can see how the changes play out in practice?
###
The Economist of Errors: 2025’s Artificial Stupidity Gold Rush
Silicon Valley’s latest boom is not in AI, but in its counter-part: Artificial Stupidity (AS). Venture capital firms have poured more than $104 billion into AS startups in the first half of 2025 alone, and at least six companies now claim valuations above $500 billion. The AS sector has grown so quickly that the Nasdaq has launched a dedicated “DUMB Index”, which outperformed the S&P 500 by 47% in Q2.
“The world has optimized itself into exhaustion,” says Lars Fendrick, founder of Oopsify, the sector’s runaway leader. “People want friction, imperfection, even nonsense. That’s where we come in.”
A Market Built on Mishaps
Early AS products focused on customer experience. Retailers discovered that chatbots that occasionally misunderstand requests or suggest completely unrelated products increased time spent on the site by 22%. Airlines are experimenting with AS-powered boarding systems that mis-scan a handful of tickets every flight, rekindling what one executive called “the lost excitement of air travel.”
Meanwhile, corporate clients use AS software to generate overcomplicated PowerPoint slides, schedule redundant meetings, and insert contradictory bullet points into strategic memos — the kind of subtle incompetence once provided only by expensive consultants.
The Race to AGS
The current frenzy is over who will reach Artificial General Stupidity (AGS) first. Oopsify claims victory after unveiling its flagship platform, “Unified ErrorNet 1.0,” at the Las Vegas Mediocrity Summit 2025. The launch event featured confetti cannons, a keynote delivered entirely in the wrong language, and a spectacular on-stage crash of the demo — hailed by analysts as “proof of authenticity.”
“We’ve achieved human-level cluelessness across at least six verticals,” Fendrick boasted.
“Next year, we’re targeting cross-domain idiocy.”
Competitors such as Clutz.AI, Derailr, and Unhelpful Labs dispute the claim, arguing that Oopsify’s system still shows “dangerous flashes of insight.”
Reshaping Daily Life
In homes, AS-enabled smart speakers mishear song requests and sometimes offer unsolicited karaoke lessons. GPS navigation apps are adding random wrong turns to “restore the lost art of getting lost.” Several dating platforms now use AS to ensure a high rate of awkward mismatches, claiming that it boosts engagement.
The public seems intrigued. Surveys by Gallant Research show that 61% of consumers believe a touch of engineered ineptitude makes digital life feel more human.
Winners, Losers, and the Threat to Middle Management
While some praise AS for “bringing back the messy charm of human error,” certain professions are nervous. Middle managers and high-priced consultants are most at risk. As one industry analyst drily notes, “AS can already conduct long meetings that reach no conclusion, draft ambiguous memos, and stall decision-making — all at a fraction of the salary.”
At the same time, compliance officers and safety regulators warn that a growing dependency on unreliable software could blur the line between whimsical inefficiency and actual hazard.
The Bottom Line
Despite doubts, AS shows no sign of slowing. Morgan Stumble & Co. predicts the AS market will surpass $1 trillion by 2027, provided it does not accidentally delete its own codebase. Investors argue that in a world weary of hyper-optimization, monetizing mediocrity is the ultimate growth play.
As one venture capitalist put it, “Artificial Intelligence was about beating humans at chess. Artificial Stupidity is about beating them at being human.”
