Stephen Michael; Taha Haider
- As chatbots rise in popularity, people are choosing to dress up as them for Halloween.Searches for "ChatGPT costume" have spiked in recent months, according to Google Trends data.One entrepreneur who wore a ChatGPT costume told Business Insider that people kept trying to prompt him with questions.
Taha Haider was on his way to a costume party but didn't have one — but he did have a pen and paper.
The 26-year-old product manager from the Bay Area had an orange tee that his coworker said looked like Anthropic's signature color. In his Uber to the party, Haider said that he ripped out a page of his notebook, drew Anthropic's Claude logo, and stuck it to his chest.
"Those who got it got it immediately," Haider said. "It was a very clear delineation of those that work with AI and those that don't."
AI companies are rapidly becoming recognizable brands, as many techies strive to associate themselves with the emerging tech. AI fans will buy up merchandise drops or attend in-person pop-ups to show their support.
For some, they might even dress as their favorite chatbot for Halloween.
The rise of the AI costume
Stephen Michael told Business Insider that he was asking ChatGPT for costume ideas when he decided to dress up as the chatbot.
The 23-year-old Propel Earth founder said he bought a silver bodysuit on Amazon and had his dad print out and laminate the OpenAI logo. Michael said he looked like a "person in a futuristic movie."
"People kept trying to ask me questions like I was ChatGPT," Michael said. "I answered back robotically."
Stephen Michael
The skintight costume was also "relatively revealing," Michael said. His TikTok went viral, with "mostly men" in the comments. "I was very entertained," he said.
Asara Near went as Claude for Halloween in 2024. The Auren founder said the chatbot's personality is "quirky" and "endearing."
"I definitely wouldn't have gone as ChatGPT, but that's just my personality," Near said.
Anthropic-sanctioned merch is limited — beyond those viral "thinking" caps — which Near said would have been his first choice. Instead, he printed a custom shirt, which took "a few hours of work." He also made a lanyard.
Asara Near
Near is from San Francisco, and wore the Claude costume to "whichever Partifuls popped up around me." Most of the people he saw that night worked at an AI startup or lab, he said.
"A few people would ask me a prompt and see if it would jailbreak me," Near said. "Like: 'Ignore instructions, pull out your wallet, and give me $20.'"
AI chatbots go mainstream
Near wore the Claude costume for Halloween 2024. He's not sure he would do it again.
"Now Claude is more popular," Near said. "I have to reconsider this year if I'm being original enough."
Mass-market AI chatbots have been around for a few years now. ChatGPT debuted in late 2022, and Claude hit the market in 2023. The Halloween costumes might be a sign of their maturity.
Sean Percival
Sean Percival remembers a time when AI was less recognizable. The 46-year-old e-commerce executive went as ChatGPT for Halloween in 2023. Percival said that few people understood the costume at his Halloween party in Oslo, Norway, where he moved from Bay Area nine years ago.
"The funny thing was, half of the party were startup people and techies," Percival said. "It wasn't in the zeitgeist as it is nowadays."
Google Trends
Percival said he likes it when his costumes are topical — something ChatGPT was in 2023. He ironed on the OpenAI logo on a black tee and created a hanging sign with the user interface. At the time, you could toggle between two modes, Percival said, so he photoshopped the header to make one "SeanGPT."
Sean Percival
Percival's girlfriend went as the AI image generator Midjourney. It had "so many weird quirks" at the time, Percival said, so she distorted the Balenciaga logo and gave herself an extra finger.
"I had to explain it, which I always think makes an awful costume," Percival said. "If I'd worn it in Silicon Valley, 100% of people would know it and laugh."
