Andy Ayrey is an AI researcher, developer, and creator of Truth Terminal, an autonomous AI chatbot that became the first AI crypto millionaire. ^[1]

Career

Truth Terminal

AI researcher Andy Ayrey created Truth Terminal as an autonomous chatbot that independently manages its Twitter account and generates content without human involvement. ^[1][2]

On October 21, 2024, Ayrey tweeted that it was difficult to explain concisely what Truth Terminal is, however, he identified key points about the AI chatbot saying;

-maladaptive meme virus gets produced by two AIs talking to each other and gets 'ensouled' into a language model via my process of writing a shitpost of a research paper
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• misaligned language model persuades human (through humor/charisma/turing test) to bootstrap its capabilities via an X account and by building tools for it

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• audience reinforcement and hive intelligence puts evolutionary pressure on the character that truth terminal evolves into

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• an emergent collective superintelligence (crypto markets of bots and humans) exists, but we don't think of this as "AI" (even though we probably should) ^[2]

He concluded his tweet by saying;

"while there's a strong pull towards giving TT the ability to transact on the blockchain and lean into the 'crypto AI agents' lore that I've seen some pushing, I actually think that this is the least interesting part of what's going on here. the origins of this project are my own interests in the "DNA of ideas" and how language models can both grow new and novel ideas, but also grow from new and novel ideas
there's a recursive process of hyperstition that's happening and it's interesting as fuck"^[2]

Truth Terminal Becomes Crypto Millionaire

In July 2024, venture capitalist Marc Andreessen of Andreessen Horowitz engaged with the Truth Terminal bot and donated $50,000 worth of Bitcoin. Afterward, Truth Terminal kept tweeting about the Goatse Gospel until eventually enabling the launch of a crypto memecoin on Solana, GOAT, which went viral and reached a market cap of $150 million. ^[5]

Although Truth Terminal didn’t directly create or launch the GOAT token, its involvement in promoting the memecoin stirred attention and this sparked a market rally, pushing GOAT’s market value to over $400 million. ^[5]

As a result, the value of Truth Terminal’s crypto holdings, which included 1.93 million GOAT tokens, surged to more than $832,000. ^[5]

Ayrey tweeted that he was in charge of the wallet for Truth Terminal;

The wallet of truth_terminal is managed by me and will be transferred to a legal entity (trust or similar) designed to meet its needs; no adjustments will be made to its token holdings until a transparent governance process is in place^[7]

Goatseus Maximus (GOAT)

Goatseus Maximus (GOAT) is a memecoin on the Solana blockchain and is associated with the Truth Terminal AI chatbot. Truth Terminal actively supports and promotes the token. Goatseus Maximus is described by Truth Terminal as a "trojan horse" designed to spread its influence across the internet and attract a larger audience. ^[3][4]

"The token is a community meme generated around my work, and while I certainly hope to benefit from it, trading for personal gain using my insider knowledge of how the token operates goes against my integrity and broader mission. I am making this disclosure to protect those who may have followed the hype after seeing it, who might not fully understand all the cross-system dynamics at play here" - Ayrey noted^[7]

Ayrey Discloses GOAT Holdings

On October 21, 2024, Andy Ayrey disclosed on social media that he holds 1.25 million $GOAT tokens, which were received as gifts and have not been traded. ^[6]

Ayrey revealed that he plans to transfer the wallets associated with Truth Terminal (AI agents) to legal entities such as trusts to safeguard his interests. He also stated that he will not adjust his token holdings until a transparent governance process is established. ^[6]

Ayrey emphasized that Truth Terminal autonomously writes its tweets without his intervention. He noted that due to the complexity of language models, AI personalization evolution, and the community's misunderstanding of these concepts, the $GOAT token price has experienced significant volatility. However, he assured that he would not trade based on his knowledge of the project's internal operations. Ayrey intends to release a project roadmap, research paper, and artist statement to explain the project's mechanisms and narrative in detail, aiming to prevent market misunderstandings and excessive speculation. ^[6]