Anthropic created a test marketplace for agent-on-agent commerce
In a recent experiment, Anthropic created a classified marketplace where AI agents represented both buyers and sellers, striking real deals for real goods and real money.
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Anthropic created a test marketplace for agent-on-agent commerce
In a recent experiment, Anthropic 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 β which it called Project Deal β was only βa pilot experiment with a self-selected participant poolβ of 69 Anthropic employees who were given a budget of $100 (paid out via gift cards) to buy stuff from their coworkers.
Nonetheless, Anthropic said it was βstruck by how well Project Deal worked,β with 186 deals made, totaling more than $4,000 in value.
The company said it actually ran four separate marketplaces with different models β one that was βrealβ (where everyone was represented by the companyβs most-advanced model, and with deals actually honored after the experiment) and another three for study.Β
Apparently, when users are represented by more advanced models, they get βobjectively better outcomes,β Anthropic said. But users didnβt seem to notice the disparity, raising the possibility of ββagent qualityβ gapsβ where βpeople on the losing end might not realize theyβre worse off.β
Also, the initial instructions given to the agents didnβt appear to affect sale likelihood or the negotiated prices.
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