i really need to write something about "agentic payments"

[davidgerard@circumstances.run]

@dysfun totally a PM vibe code oopsy woopsy fucky wucky

[gbargoud@masto.nyc]

@davidgerard

I keep thinking of the people (I think about a year ago or so but it's probably still happening) who asked ChatGPT to order them something from Starbucks and then it responded that it did and they can go pick it up in 10 minutes at which point they would go and get angry at a barista for not having the order ready

[davidgerard@circumstances.run]

@hipsterelectron the articles don't seem to mention AML at all, which is odd cos when the same people talk about crypto they certainly do

so they're envisioning this as mainstream and normal

[hipsterelectron@circumstances.run]

@davidgerard it seems like one way to cook the books against the IRS. but that might be wrong

[hipsterelectron@circumstances.run]

@davidgerard i'm actually looking to apply for clerical work in tax court partially for this reason

[spzb@infosec.exchange]

@davidgerard I thought "agentic payments" was how 007 got his salary

[henryk@chaos.social]

@davidgerard I do money-adjacent thinga and was confused, too, when people started talking about the upcoming agentic AI payments revolution. Like, ok, ignore the stochastic parrot aspect, but what big great new invention do you think you're going to need to build even if it works?! An AI agent can send an authenticated POST request good as any other client. Give it credentials and it's off to the races. No new technological secret sauce necessary.

[toerror@mastodon.gamedev.place]

@davidgerard I noticed the graun publish this on behalf of Mastercard a while back:

Is AI set to transform the way we shop? (Hint: yes, it is)

From choosing a new outfit based on your budget and taste, to making sure you always have your kitchen staples replenished, a new consumer revolution is underway thanks to the power of artificial intelligence

the Guardian (web.archive.org)

[orb2069@mastodon.online]

@davidgerard more like "they keep fucking up, but people actually care if they do it with money."

[davidgerard@circumstances.run]

@toerror lol the fuck is that

[ladytel@masto.hackers.town]

@davidgerard yeah I've been seeing billboards around town and I don't understand why agents need their own money. Is it even an agent wallet or just a prompt like "hey your claw mistress wants to buy smut accept or decline?"

[toerror@mastodon.gamedev.place]

@davidgerard I like the way it manages to be insulting, smug and wrong in the headline alone.

[kamellatate@mastodon.social]

@toerror @davidgerard "Instead of doing all the hard work themselves . . . " I mean really, why have humans at all???

[toerror@mastodon.gamedev.place]

@kamellatate @davidgerard The ultimate aim of AI is to turn everything into a multifractal circular billing scheme with AIs passing money about at every level.

[gooba42@mastodon.social]

@davidgerard The hype people love LLMs because they give really good demos.

They are basically hyper-optimized for looking impressive at a glance and anything else they do is pretty much a coincidence.

[jer@chirp.enworld.org]

@davidgerard Payments industry doesn't care if it works completely or not, they care if it reduces friction for purchases. The more payments they process the more money they make

So if having an agent buy things means people buy more things then they're going to love it. And if the agent has the authority to just go off and buy shit for you there are definitely people who are going to turn it on and never notice that their accounts are being slowly drained by an agent buying shit in their name

[bjorndown@mastodon.social]

@toerror @kamellatate @davidgerard if you earn a percentage on every transaction that sounds like a profitable future

[coolcalmcollected@mastodon.social]

@davidgerard

madness

I won't install a banking app let alone allow a program with sub 50% accuracy to handle my money

[fivetonsflax@tilde.zone]

@davidgerard You'd think this would be the one area where the FA/FO cycle runs tightly enough to nip idiocy in the bud ...