---
title: "The AI Gold Rush: Billions Pour Into AI, but Agents Booked Just Four Uber Rides in October's Busiest Week"
description: Uber says AI agents booked four rides in its busiest October week while AI start-ups raise billions. What the gap means, and five habits for using AI well.
author: Dr Marina Nani (Editor-in-Chief)
date: 2026-11-08T11:32:32.512Z
updated: 2026-11-08T11:32:32.523Z
canonical: https://www.richmanmagazine.com/article/the-ai-gold-rush-billions-pour-into-ai-but-agents-booked-just-four-uber-rides-in-october-s-busiest-w
image: https://cdn.nanimediahouse.com/pexels-10731974.webp
categories: Tech News
content_type: Guide
publication: Rich Man Magazine
schema_type: Article
---

Two numbers from the past week tell you where the AI boom stands. Business Insider reported that Thinking Machines Lab, the start-up founded by former OpenAI technology chief Mira Murati, is closing a $5bn funding round at a $40bn valuation before the new money, more than three times its value a year ago. A day earlier, Uber told investors that AI agents booked just four of its rides during Halloween week, its busiest week in October.

The money keeps flowing into AI at record speed. The everyday habit of letting an AI act for you has barely started.

## AI Agents at Uber and DoorDash

On its third-quarter earnings call on Wednesday 4th November, Uber said it handled around 320 million rides and food orders during Halloween week. AI agents, the assistants that are meant to book and buy things on your behalf, placed four of the rides and about 500 of the Uber Eats orders. DoorDash reported a similar picture on its own call the week before: a few hundred orders from AI agents in total.

Uber's chief executive, Dara Khosrowshahi, called the traction 'very, very early' and said every major AI company is talking to Uber about it. He also pointed out that booking a ride in the Uber app already takes about 50 seconds, so an agent has little time to save you.

## Valuations Keep Climbing

The gap between investment and everyday use has not slowed the money. Alongside Thinking Machines, the AI infrastructure start-up Fal reached a $16bn valuation this week, and Anthropic, the maker of Claude, is preparing for one of the largest stock market listings ever.

Big valuations bet on what AI will do in five or ten years, not on what people do with it today. The four Uber rides show how far everyday habits still have to travel before those bets pay off.

## Where AI Already Earns Its Keep

The clearest gains this week came from companies using AI inside their own work. Revolut, the British fintech, told The Register it cut the cost of its AI coding tools by about ten times by moving from a paid service to open models it runs itself. Anthropic launched a Claude tool for personal finance on 5th November, and OpenAI and Google released faster tools for images and video.

AI saves the most time where the task is long, repetitive and checkable: drafting, summarising, writing code, sorting data. It saves the least where the task already takes seconds, like booking a ride.

## Where AI Can Lead You Astray

WIRED reported this month on hikers on Mount Shasta in California who relied partly on Google's Gemini to plan a climb, reached the summit at 7.30pm, came down in the dark and were lost by morning. Rescuers met another climber carrying an AI-made map that put major features on the wrong side of the mountain. At Grand Teton National Park, the superintendent said the share of visitors using AI for travel information has gone from zero to 26%.

An AI answer sounds equally confident whether it is right or wrong. On anything that affects your safety, money or health, it is a starting point, not the final word.

## Small Habits for Using AI Well

You do not need to choose between ignoring AI and handing it your life. A few small habits give you most of the benefit and little of the risk.

Use AI for first drafts, summaries and ideas, then make the final decision yourself. Check any fact that matters against an official source. Keep personal, medical and financial details out of chats unless you trust where they are stored, as courts in the US have ordered AI companies to keep copies of users' conversations. Ask the same question twice in different words and compare the answers. And notice how you feel after using it: if a tool leaves you thinking less, use it less.

## At a Glance

- **Uber, Halloween week:** about 320 million rides and orders, four rides and about 500 food orders booked by AI agents
- **Thinking Machines Lab:** $5bn round at a $40bn valuation before the new money, according to Business Insider
- **Fal:** valued at $16bn
- **Grand Teton visitors using AI for travel information:** 26%, up from zero