The key facts
- TechCrunch published a roundup of 'last-minute' Halloween costumes for techies
- The ideas play on recent events: PHP vulnerabilities, Meta and OpenAI AI assistants, and Bryan Johnson's post about 'GLP-Bryan'
- The 'PHP vulnerability' costume references critical bugs found by AI that the publication wrote about a week ago
Costumes inspired by the week's news
Just hours before Halloween, the publication TechCrunch published a roundup of 'last-minute' costumes for a technical audience, playing on recent events in the industry. The authors emphasize that the level of effort behind the ideas varies, and most of the looks can be put together from everyday items.
AI, glasses, and Zuckerberg
Among the suggested looks is 'recursive self-improvement' (a nod to Dario Amodei's and Sam Altman's concerns about AI developing too fast): the reader is invited to portray an 'improved version of themselves' with a self-help book, a yoga mat, and bragging about sleep data from an Oura ring. The second look is the 'cute AI agent': Meta and OpenAI recently released assistants with 'creepy-cute' avatars, and the costume calls for a fluffy outfit in the style of ChatGPT's Dot, asking guests to grant read and write access to their Gmail. The third is 'the person secretly recording you on Meta glasses': a little circle mimicking a red recording indicator is attached to the glasses; the publication specifically asks readers not to record people without their consent. Another costume is Mark Zuckerberg in slightly loose black T-shirts, with a note reading 'Building is my love language' or, for those who know Latin, the phrase 'Aut Zuck aut nihil' ('Either Zuck or nothing') from his actual T-shirt.
Fresh developer fears and a biohacker
Two more looks are tied to events of the past few weeks. The 'AI usage limit notification' costume features printed screenshots of hitting a usage limit, meant to scare 'vibe coders,' for whom, according to the author, nothing is scarier than running out of Claude tokens. The 'PHP vulnerability' costume references the 'PHP apocalypse' — an incident that happened just a week ago, when AI discovered critical PHP vulnerabilities that could have turned into a catastrophe for the internet; the suggestion is a T-shirt with the word PHP and conversations about feelings all evening. The roundup closes with two costumes of biohacker Bryan Johnson: the regular look 'explains itself,' while the couples' version is 'GLP-Bryan,' referencing Johnson's September post on X about lying on top of his partner with his full weight in order to 'calm her nervous system,' along with a demonstration image attached to the post. The publication admits that recreating this look at a party would be 'genuinely weird.'
