Brett Adcock's Hark app pizza giveaway turns into PR disaster; AI personal agent economics debated

Brett Adcock's Hark Pizza Giveaway Becomes PR Disaster

Brett Adcock, Figure's CEO, launched a separate personal AI agent app called Hark and attempted a $1 million free pizza giveaway on October 16, 2026. The promotion backfired when users discovered the app's permission scope was far broader than the pizza offer justified.

To claim a free pizza, users had to grant Hark sweeping data access including the ability to edit, create, and permanently delete Google Drive files, spreadsheets, and calendars; read, compose, and send emails from Gmail; and access organizational workplace directories. The giveaway malfunctioned on launch night, and at least one user filed an FTC complaint about the promotion rather than simply report technical issues to Hark's team.

The core problem was not technical failure but perception. Users balked at handing over that level of access for a pizza. Whether all permissions were functionally required or simply requested remains unclear from the transcript, though the speaker notes that some permissions can typically be declined on app installs without blocking core functionality.

Why a separate company. The more interesting question is why Adcock spun Hark out as a standalone entity rather than housing it within Figure. The likely answer is capitalization strategy. Structuring it as a separate company with its own cap table allows Adcock to raise fresh funding and offer co-founder equity to recruit top talent—a playbook Elon Musk pioneered with xAI before acquiring it into the broader Musk empire. That model works more smoothly when the founder already has credibility from prior successful ventures. Musk had sold cars and launched rockets; Zuckerberg has spent two decades scaling Meta. Adcock's track record at Figure is more nascent, which may limit how far that lever can pull.