When Brian’s wife kisses him goodbye each morning, she believes he’s heading off to his senior engineering job at Google. In reality, he’s walking to a nearby café, opening ChatGPT, and running a small freelance empire powered almost entirely by artificial intelligence.
A Day in the Life of “Google Brian”
Brian’s daily schedule looks remarkably ordinary — at least on paper.
- 9:00 AM: Says goodbye to his wife, claiming he’s off to the Google office.
- 9:15 AM: Settles into his favorite coffee shop.
- 9:30 AM: Logs into ChatGPT and begins work.
- 9:31 AM – 12:00 PM: Uses AI to manage nearly fifty freelance projects.
- 12:00 PM – 4:00 PM: Spends the afternoon gaming at a PC café.
- 5:00 PM: Returns home with a weary smile and a believable, “Tough day at the office.”
Despite not having written a single line of code in two years, Brian earns close to $400,000 annually. His wife still believes he’s thriving at Google.
“ChatGPT is better at my old job than I ever was,” he says. “So why fight it?”
The “Team” That Doesn’t Exist
Brian’s client list would make any seasoned freelancer sweat:
- 12 startups looking for part-time CTOs
- 8 firms requesting full-stack development
- 15 small businesses wanting apps built
- 7 large enterprises needing architecture consulting
- 5 venture capital firms requiring technical evaluations
To his clients, Brian appears to run a 10-person engineering team. In truth, he has only one assistant — ChatGPT Plus.
With monthly retainers ranging from $500 to $15,000, Brian brings in roughly $33,000 each month, while spending less than ten hours a week actually working.
“I never claimed I’d personally write the code,” he says. “I just make sure the work gets done.”
How the Lie Began
The elaborate deception started in 2023 when Brian was laid off from his real job at Google. His wife was pregnant, and he couldn’t bring himself to admit what had happened.
Instead, he constructed an intricate illusion:
- A Photoshopped Google ID badge
- AI-generated pay stubs
- Fabricated work stories created by ChatGPT
- Voice AI calls posing as “colleagues”
- Solo trips disguised as company events
What was meant to be a short-term cover-up has lasted more than two years.
“It was supposed to be temporary,” Brian admits. “Now it’s my life.”
Inside the AI-Powered Operation
Brian’s workflow is fully automated and astonishingly efficient.
Morning: Project Planning
He sends a list of client requests to ChatGPT, which creates sprint plans, writes progress updates, drafts technical documentation, and identifies potential issues.
Afternoon: Code Delivery
The AI writes complete codebases, includes testing frameworks, documentation, and deployment instructions — everything needed to deliver a production-ready product.
Evening: Client Communication
ChatGPT crafts professional, context-aware emails that sound like they’re coming from a confident senior engineer. Brian simply copies, pastes, and sends them.
Lynn Martelli is an editor at Readability. She received her MFA in Creative Writing from Antioch University and has worked as an editor for over 10 years. Lynn has edited a wide variety of books, including fiction, non-fiction, memoirs, and more. In her free time, Lynn enjoys reading, writing, and spending time with her family and friends.
