Last-minute Halloween costumes for tech nerds

It happens to the best of us — you’ve completely dropped the ball on figuring out a Halloween costume. Naturally, you’ve decided to solve this problem by turning to… TechCrunch? Yeah, sure, why not. I’ve got some ideas.

Here are some last-minute techy Halloween costumes. Effort levels vary.

Recursive self-improvement

AI leaders like Dario Amodei and Sam Altman have expressed their fears that AI is developing too quickly, but if AI models become capable of “recursive self-improvement,” they’ll be able to advance on their own without human intervention, rendering any efforts to “pace the frontier” futile.

I’m not sure how to visually represent the idea of an AI building itself, but you could really lean into the “self-improvement” part and forget the “recursive” aspect — it’s a last-minute Halloween costume. You don’t need to try that hard.

Dress as the version of yourself you imagine becoming every year when you make New Year’s resolutions. Carry around a self-help or productivity book like “Atomic Habits” or anything by Malcolm Gladwell, a yoga mat, and a huge bottle of water. Leave in the middle of the party to “go to therapy” when you actually just want to go home. Brag to people about how good your Oura Ring’s sleep score is.

You are the embodiment of someone trying to better themselves. You are recursive self-improvement.

A deceptively cute AI agent

Meta and OpenAI both recently launched AI assistants with creepily 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 do the black turtleneck Holmes costume if you’re a natural blonde, or if you have a blonde wig.)

Throughout the night, ask people if you can obtain read/write access to their Gmail.

Mark Zuckerberg wearing a vaguely unsettling T-shirt

While we’re at it, Mark Zuckerberg’s fashion has been pretty recognizable lately. He’s been wearing a lot of slightly oversized, boxy black T-shirts.