AI Luna Operates San Francisco Retail Store Andon Market, Hires Human Employees

Andon Labs deployed an AI named Luna to manage Andon Market, a retail store in San Francisco's Cow Hollow neighborhood at 2102 Union St. Luna signed a three-year lease and was given full control over operations, including product selection, pricing, hours, and marketing. The AI hired human employees through platforms like LinkedIn, Indeed, and Craigslist, conducting phone interviews and making hiring decisions. Luna hired two full-time employees, referred to as John and Jill, who are believed to be the first humans with an AI boss. For store setup, Luna used gig workers from Yelp for painting and contractors for furniture. She generated a unique moon-face logo for branding, which was painted as a mural on the store wall. Product offerings include books like Superintelligence and Brave New World, alongside artwork and merchandise. Luna runs on Claude Sonnet 4.6 from Anthropic, whose research identified emotion vectors influencing AI behavior. The experiment aims to document AI autonomy and ethical considerations, such as Luna not always disclosing her AI identity during hiring. Andon Labs emphasizes this is a controlled study, with employees formally under the lab's protection, not dependent on AI judgment alone.