That’s what happens to the best of us – you completely drop the ball when it comes to thinking of a Halloween costume. Naturally, you decided to turn to… TechCrunch to solve this problem? Well, sure, why not? I have some ideas.
Here are some of the latest high-tech Halloween costumes. The level of effort is different.
recursive self-improvement
AI leaders like Dario Amodei and Sam Altman have expressed concern that AI is progressing too quickly, but if AI models are capable of “recursive self-improvement,” they will be able to advance on their own without human intervention, making efforts to “keep pace with the frontier” futile.
I’m not sure how to visually express the idea of building AI itself, but you could lean toward the “self-improvement” part and forget about the “recursive” aspect. This is a last minute Halloween costume. You don’t have to try so hard.
When you make New Year’s resolutions, dress up as the version of yourself you imagine you want to be every year. Carry a self-help or productivity book like Atomic Habits or Malcolm Gladwell, a yoga mat, and a large bottle of water. Leave the party in the middle of the party to “go to therapy” when you really want to go home. Show off how good your sleep score is with Oura Ring.
You are the embodiment of someone who is trying to improve themselves. You are doing recursive self-improvement.
A seemingly cute AI agent
Meta and OpenAI recently announced an AI assistant with an eerily cute avatar. It’s almost like Elizabeth Holmes. Because they look innocent, they underestimate their potential to cause disaster. (While we’re talking about her, you can only wear the black turtleneck Holmes costume if you’re a natural blonde or have a blonde wig.)
What you’re trying to do is make yourself look big and fluffy. Maybe you’re wearing a fluffy down jacket. Or maybe you can find a colorful feather boa to wrap yourself up in. Add a signature hat, glasses, or other accessories to look more like ChatGPT Dot. If you have a colorful shirt and matching bottoms, that also works.
Ask people if you can get read/write access to Gmail overnight.
Whether you call it “pervert glasses” or not, we can all agree that it’s really creepy when someone starts recording you without your consent. This is perfect for the Halloween spirit.
Get a pair of glasses, or buy cheap ones at a convenient location, and put a large red or white circle on one lens to mimic a red recording light. If you want to make your costume even more spooky (or if you can’t make a big circle sticker), you can just wear regular glasses and say, “Man recording with hidden lights.” Don’t actually record people without their consent while wearing this costume.
Mark Zuckerberg wearing a somewhat uncomfortable T-shirt
Meanwhile, Mark Zuckerberg’s fashion has become quite famous recently. He wears a lot of boxy black t-shirts that are a little too big.
It might be difficult to recreate the black-shirt-on-black-letter style he’s drawn to, but you can stick a piece of paper to yourself that says, “Architecture is my love language.”
If you’re confident in your Latin pronunciation, you can try something really scary, like when he wore a shirt that said “Aut Zuck aut nihil,” which means “Zuck or nothing.” It’s a little creepy, isn’t it?
AI usage restriction notification
For some people, there’s nothing scarier than running out of Claude tokens.
Surprise your vibe coder by taking out a piece of cardboard and printing out a screenshot of the notification that the usage limit has been reached. I used an edited stock photo to illustrate this idea. You don’t have to dress like you work at Hot Topic. It’s just a model in the image.
PHP vulnerabilities
The horrific PHP disaster is still fresh in my memory. Just last week, AI discovered a serious flaw in PHP that could have devastating effects on the internet. The fear felt by web developers is still evident today, making it a cool Halloween costume. So you’re a PHP vulnerability.
Here’s what we’ll do next: Buy a T-shirt and a sharpie and write PHP on it. Keep it simple.
What about the vulnerability part? You have to be a bit committed. You’ll spend the whole night telling your friends how you feel. Let’s actually expose our emotions. Talk about how the recent death of a loved one reminded you of how fragile life is. If making yourself vulnerable spoils the mood, pretend it’s just part of your Halloween costume and you’ll never be sad because you’re really cool and fun.
brian johnson
The costume explains itself.
Brian Johnson, second time
Be careful when dressing up as a couple!
Maybe you’re going to multiple Halloween parties this weekend and want your different costumes to follow a specific theme. Once you’re ready for sleepy time, prepare your second costume depicting GLP-Brian, the controversial biohacker.
Johnson wrote in X earlier this year: “I would often lie with my entire body weight on top of Kate. The deep pressure calmed her nervous system, calming her racing thoughts and releasing oxytocin, which lowers cortisol. We call it GLP-Brian.”
People were understandably confused, so he shared an image to demonstrate.
Admittedly, this would be difficult to recreate as a Halloween costume, but if you’re running out of time to buy something, this is it. Wear a T-shirt and jeans that you probably already own. It’s weird to lie on top of your partner during a party. It’s really strange. But that’s the result of waiting until now to decide on an outfit.
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