Anthropic recently quietly launched the 'Project Deal' experiment, in which its AI model, Claude, engaged in buying and selling goods and negotiating prices on behalf of employees in a closed market, involving real money transactions. During the experiment, over 500 listed items facilitated 186 transactions, with a total transaction volume exceeding $4,000. This experiment demonstrated the AI's autonomous trading capabilities, heralding the arrival of the 'agent economy.' Following the announcement, eBay's stock price closed down approximately 4.5% for the day, as the market expressed concerns that AI technology could disrupt traditional e-commerce models and began reassessing its potential impact on the business models of e-commerce platforms.
