Base ChatGPT isn’t connected to the internet. They have (or had because it’s temporarily disabled) a version that could browse the web (poorly). My company’s software uses the OpenAI API along with a lot of code we wrote to do the rest.

I’ve been working on an autonomous agent. Basically you can chat with it as if it was an assistant, and it will do tasks for you or answer questions, but it also just figures out what tasks need to be done and does them. It keeps track of all sorts of info and has access to a wide range of actions. For example, I just did a demo where I had it gather everyone’s pizza order via slack and text message and then look up the number for and call the pizza place to make the order. It still just amazes me to watch the server logs as it figures out how to perform some task it wasn’t specifically programmed to do and has never done before.

Etsy employee #3 or so here but haven’t worked there in more than a decade. Rob is a great guy, but I don’t think he could have grown Etsy the way it has. I’m sure some people will say that’s not a bad thing but my response is you probably wouldn’t know about Etsy if he stayed on.

I think on the whole, the new CEO has done more good than bad for the company. They’ve always had criticism of non handmade stuff being sold on there. I think they could do more to that end, and if the video is right that the new CEO is allowing non handmade stuff on there, I don’t agree with him on that. I haven’t seen that myself and I do still use the site. While he’s made other decisions I don’t agree with, encouraging sellers to do free shipping was a good move. Many buyers expect that thanks to Amazon. The fee increases while for sure had an impact on sellers bottom lines, don’t compare to what Amazon Handmade (if that still exists) and ebay charge (not to get into most other marketplaces like the app stores that charge 30%). The current CEO in my opinion understands Etsy way more than the other two they had after Rob was out.

Also in terms of Fred Wilson, she should have done a little more homework on him. He was one of the original investors. He understands Etsy. He’s also entitled to some return for making a very risky investment on 4 kids (they were like 20 when they started it). I haven’t spoken to Fred in some time so maybe he’s changed, but I doubt it.

Anyway, I don’t mean to be so negative about the video, but I also don’t think Etsy has lost its way as much as the video implies. Granted I am not a seller, just a user at this point.