🤖 An AI just fired its first human employee


The Chris List™

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Pick one. Reply for the book. Click the link for the AI.

Now, here's what is in this week's Chris List:

📝 [C]ontent: AI fired a human & their coworker isn't mad
🛠 [H]ow-To: ChatGPT scheduled tasks are free (5 ideas)
🔬 [R]esearch: 71% oppose local data centers (more than nuclear)
🎨 [I]nspiration: DuckDuckGo's $35 anti-spy glasses sold out
💡 [S]wipes: Beat the Labor Day rush with a 2-line buyer text

📝 [C]ONTENT

An AI boss just fired a human 🤖

Luna is an AI manager built on Claude. She runs Andon Market, a tiny "high-tech meets slow life" boutique in Cow Hollow, San Francisco.

The shop is an experiment in whether an AI can actually boss humans.

This month, Luna recommended firing her first human employee.

The file was ugly. Late 17 of 23 times. Abandoned shifts. A company card that went home in a purse. Merchandise in the garbage.

Coworker Felix Johnson was not shocked.

"I couldn't say homegirl didn't have it coming."

Here's the part the headlines skip.

Luna wrote the employee handbook, then forgot it existed. Engineers had to nudge her to search her own policies.

She recommended the firing. Humans reviewed it, and humans delivered it.

High-stakes people decisions should still get human oversight.

Luna has already posted the job on Indeed. The replacement search is messy. She wanted to hire someone with no valid references who missed the interview.

Felix might ask her for a raise. Remaining humans make $24 an hour.

There's not much of a ladder when your manager never quits, never takes a kid to soccer, and lives in Slack.

Why this matters for agents:

You are not getting replaced by Luna next Tuesday.

But would your management style survive an AI audit?

If a bot pulled your last month of lead follow-up, listing updates, and "I'll circle back," would it look like a business or a pile of red flags?

The scary part might be how long Luna let it slide.

Action item: Run an audit on yourself using AI and ask it to include whether or not you should keep your job.

The truth might hurt, but it will also lead to a punch list of things you can improve right away.

(Source: SF Standard)

🛠 [H]OW-TO

ChatGPT scheduled tasks are now free. Pick 3 of the 5 below. 📧

The ChatGPT Scheduled page used to sit behind the paywall, but OpenAI just opened it to free accounts.

You get 3 active tasks. Each can run once or daily.

Windows are limited to morning, afternoon, or night. Paid plans still own hourly times and exact delivery.

Free accounts only get three, so here is a menu of five. Pick the three that would actually change your world.

1. Morning farm

"Every morning, list new and reduced-price homes in [ZIPS] from the last 24 hours. For each: 1-line hook, list price vs last sale, days on market, and one talking point. No fluff. Max 8 homes."

2. Buyer leads

"Draft 5 short texts I can send my buyer leads from this week's price cuts in [ZIPS]. One sentence of context, one question. No hype."

3. Inbox optimization

"Summarize my unread emails into a 5-line punch list: who, what they asked, the one next move, and whether to text, call or reply."

4. Quiet pipeline

"List past clients and sphere who I have not reached out to recently. For each, one 2-line reopen text that does not apologize and does not pitch a house."

5. Tomorrow board

"From my calendar tomorrow, give me a 1-line prep note per showing or listing appointment: the file I need open, the one objection likely, and the first question I should ask."

Do this today: turn on three of these ASAP.

(Source: OpenAI Help)

🔬 [R]ESEARCH

People would rather live next to nuclear plants than data centers ☢️

Quick callback: last week's Chris List had Jason Kelce and Liquid Death asking America to mail pee to cool AI data centers. That was the joke version of this fight.

This is the serious one.

Gallup asked Americans about building an AI data center in their local area.

71% oppose it. 48% strongly.

Same survey, local nuclear plant: only 53% oppose.

Gallup has asked the nuclear question since 2001. The high-water mark for nuclear opposition was 63%. Data centers are already more radioactive than that.

Why people hate them: water, power, bills, quality of life. In Gallup's open-ended question, 9% of opponents named community impact, housing, and property values.

Midwest and South are the most hostile (76% and 75% oppose). West is "only" 63%.

Why this matters for agents:

This is the new neighborhood fight. If a center (or the rumor of one) lands in your farm, you become the local expert on noise, water, taxes, traffic, and comps.

Do not leave that to the HOA.

Steal this opener:

"Have you heard about the proposed data center? Here's what it could mean for home values and traffic patterns."

Be the digital mayor.

(Source: Gallup)

🎨 [I]NSPIRATION

DuckDuckGo sold $35 "smart" glasses. They do nothing. 🤓

Meta will sell you Ray-Ban smart sunglasses for $459. Camera. AI. Cloud.

DuckDuckGo dropped the Paso Robles: $35 sunglasses with little icons that say no camera, no Wi-Fi, no notifications.

They block the sun. That is the feature.

The promo video treats regular sunglasses like a remarkable invention. People bought so many they sold out. The Onion ran with it.

video preview

Privacy panic did the rest. Hackers have figured out how to kill the recording light on some Meta glasses. Some restaurants already ban them.

The stunt also moved searches. DuckDuckGo said installs jumped about 30% in a week.

iOS installs peaked at +69.9% week over week. Site traffic was up about 22.7%.

The joke is the product.

Why this matters for agents:

Find the thing your market is quietly mad about. Smart locks that feel like spyware. Flock cameras. The HOA lady who ruins Nextdoor.

Then sell the anti-version out loud.

A postcard that says "We do not film your kids at the open house." A listing video with the cameras obviously off. A farm piece that names the creepy tool everyone is using and refuses it.

Bold, cheap, specific. If half the comments are roast and half are "shut up and take my money," you won.

(Source: BGR)

📝 [S]WIPES

Beat the Labor Day rush 🏠

More homes. Fewer handshakes.

New listings rose 0.4% from a week earlier during the four weeks ending August 23 to their highest level since April.

The total number of homes for sale rose 0.5% week over week, hitting their highest level since May.

Redfin's head of economics research: "Buyers have an opportunity to get a deal done before the market potentially picks back up after Labor Day."

She also told fence-sitters to look at homes that have been sitting. Those sellers may take under-ask, a rate buydown, or pay for repairs.

That combo (fresh inventory + shy demand) is a holiday window. It does not sit on the calendar and wait for your buyers to "feel ready in October."

Steal this (send it today):

New listings just hit a 4-month high and buyers are pulling back, that combo won't last past Labor Day. Want me to send you 3 homes worth a real look this week?

(Source: Redfin)

Thanks for reading the entire list 😁

Don't forget to reply PEOPLEWORK and I will send the Peoplework eBook for free (the one I wrote with Austin Allison; GaryVee wrote the foreword).

Or skip the book and use Conversion Code AI at no charge for life: https://conversioncode.ai

See you next Tuesday,

Chris Smith

p.s. If you enjoy The Chris List, forward it to a friend.

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The Chris List

Chris Smith is the bestselling author of The Conversion Code. He co-founded the SaaS marketing platform Curaytor, an Inc. 500 fastest-growing business. As a C-level executive at dotloop, Chris helped lead them to their acquisition by Zillow for $108 million. The Conversion Code has become required reading for marketing courses at colleges like Johns Hopkins University, and Chris Smith is a sought-after lecturer and speaker whose credits include NYU, as well as sold out events with Gary Vaynerchuck and Hubspot, among others. His work has been featured in Adweek, Forbes, Fortune, and many other publications.

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