It happens to the best of us—you’ve completely dropped the ball on figuring out a Halloween costume. Of course, you decided to solve this problem by going to… TechCrunch? Yes, sure, why not. I have some ideas.
Here are some last minute techy Halloween costumes. Effort levels vary.
Recursive self-improvement
AI leaders such as Dario Amodi and Sam Altman have expressed their fears that AI is developing too quickly, but if AI models become capable of “recursive self-improvement”, they will be able to advance on their own without human intervention, making all efforts to “slow down the frontier” futile.
I’m not sure how to visually represent the idea of an AI building itself, but you can really get stuck into the “self-improvement” part and forget the “recursive” aspect – it’s a last-minute Halloween costume. You don’t need to try so hard.
Dress like the version of yourself you imagine every year when you make New Year’s resolutions. Bring a self-help or productivity book like “Atomic Habits” or another by Malcolm Gladwell, a yoga mat and a giant bottle of water. Leave in the middle of the party to “go to therapy” when you really just want to go home. Brag to people about how good your Oura Ring sleep score is.
You are the embodiment of someone who is trying to improve himself. You are recursively self-improving.
A deceptively cute AI agent
Meta and OpenAI both recently launched AI assistants with creepy cute avatars. It’s almost Elizabeth Holmes-esque – they look innocent, so you underestimate their potential to cause disaster. (While we’re talking about her, you’re only allowed to wear the black turtleneck Holmes costume if you’re a natural blonde or if you’re wearing a blonde wig.)
What you will do is make yourself big and fluffy. Maybe you have a poofy puffer jacket, or maybe you can find some colorful feather boas to wrap around. Add a distinctive hat, glasses or other accessory to make yourself more than a ChatGPT point. If you have a colorful shirt and matching pants, that works too.
Ask people all night if you can get read/write access to their Gmail.
Whether you call them “perverted glasses” or not, we should all agree that it would be really scary if someone just recorded you without your consent – perfectly in keeping with the Halloween spirit.
Just get a pair of glasses – or buy a cheap pair somewhere convenient – and attach a large red or white circle to a lens, mimicking the red recording light. If you want to make the costume extra creepy (or, if you can’t make a big circle sticker), you can just wear regular glasses and say you’re “shooting killers with the light covered.” Please, just don’t actually Record people without their consent while wearing this costume.
Mark Zuckerberg is wearing a vaguely disturbing t-shirt
While we’re at it, Mark Zuckerberg’s fashion has been pretty recognizable lately. He wears a lot of slightly oversized, boxy black t-shirts.
It may be hard to replicate the black-text-on-black-shirt style he gravitates toward, but you can attach a piece of paper to yourself that says “Bau is my love language.”
If you feel confident in your Latin pronunciation, you can do something really scary, like the time he wore a shirt that said “Aut Zuck aut nihil,” which means “Either Zuck or nothing.” It’s a little ominous.
An AI usage limit notice
For some people, there is nothing scarier than running out of Claude sticks.
Grab a piece of cardboard, print out screenshots of notifications telling you you’ve reached your usage limit, and give some Vibe coders a go. I illustrated this idea with an edited photo. You don’t have to dress like you work at Hot Topic – that’s just the model in the picture.
A PHP vulnerability
The gruesome PHP ocalypse is fresh in our minds – it was only last week that AI uncovered critical PHP flaws that could be catastrophic for the Internet. The fear that web developers felt is still palpable, so it makes a good Halloween costume: You are a PHP vulnerability.
Here is what you will do. Buy a t-shirt and a sharpie, and write PHP on it. Keep it simple.
What about the vulnerability part? You have to commit to the bit. All night you talk to your friends about your feelings. Actually your emotions. Talk about how your recent loss of a loved one reminded you how fragile life can be. If making yourself vulnerable kills the vibe, just pretend it’s part of the Halloween costume and that you’re really cool and fun and never feel sad.
Brian Johnson
The costume explains itself.
Bryan Johnson, a second time
Couple costume alert!
Maybe you have more than one Halloween party to go to this weekend, but you want your various costumes to stick to a specific theme. Once you’ve set up your sleeping time, it’s time to prepare your second costume portraying the controversial biohacker: GLP-Bryan.
Johnson wrote on X earlier this year: “I often lay on Kate with all my body weight. The deep pressure calms her nervous system, calms racing thoughts, and releases oxytocin which lowers cortisol. We call it GLP-Bryan.”
Naturally, people were confused, so he shared a picture to demonstrate.
Yes, this will be difficult to reproduce as a Halloween costume, but if you don’t have time to buy anything, this will do. Just wear a t-shirt and jeans that you probably already have. It will be weird to lie on top of your partner in the middle of a party. Really strange. But that’s what you get for waiting until now to figure out a suit.
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